The government is working on it, said minister for labour and employment Kumar Belbase during the 20th anniversary of the umbrella organisation of outsourcers — Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies (NAFEA) — today. “We will try to send more semi-skilled or skilled migrant workers to foreign jobs and use their earnings in the productive sector at home,” he said, adding the sector as a whole must support the drive. 

 

Currently, Nepal is sending one per cent skilled and 29 per cent semi-skilled workers to about 108 destinations. A large section of Nepali workers in major job markets — Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Malaysia — are unskilled. Such workers are working in the construction, manufacturing and agriculture sectors.

 

Ministry of Labour and Employment will develop the plan after consulting outsourcing agencies, migrant workers and rights-based organisations. “All stakeholders will have ownership in the programme,” said acting secretary of the ministry Binod KC. “It will ensure safe migration as well as promote productive use of migration.”

 

Minister Belbase urged outsourcing agencies to change themselves to responsible entrepreneurs from the so called tag of ‘human traffickers’ in the name of foreign jobs. “The government has recognised outsourcing sector as a responsible business and now it is their turn to be responsible and transparent in winning people’s faith,” he said. 

 

Outsourcers have asked for easy access to the Department of Foreign Employment and the ministry. 

 

“Government has imposed obstacles which restrict our entry to the department for related work,” said president of NAFEA Bal Bahadur Tamang targeting the 30-point reform plan that was introduced six months back.

 

A high-level committee under migration expert Dr Ganesh Gurung had suggested the government to reduce face-to-face interactions with outsourcers or their agents to control instances of bribes and corruption which are rampant in the sector. The decision was taken in Kartik when outsourcing fraud cases registered a record high of 254 cases in a month. 

 

“The decision will not help build confidence between the government and outsourcer,” he said. “We need a complete reversal in the current perception that the government has about outsourcing agencies or their agents.”

 

However, secretary KC advised them to take safe migration as a prerequisite and urged them to accept it. “The government wants to promote safe migration at any cost, so the reform plan cannot be questioned when we are getting desired results,” he said.

 

KATHMANDU: South Korea has decided to hike the salary of workers by 5.76 per cent from January 2013 following strong lobbying from trade unions. The minimum wage of workers has increased from 4,580 won ($ 4.01) to 4,860 won ($ 4.25) per hour, Korea Times reported on Saturday. According to the rate, workers in South Korea will earn around 1.01 million won ($ 890.10) per month. Migrant workers in the destination will also benefit from the increment. About 10,000 Nepalis are working in the destination under the Employment Permit System. —