Purna Chandra Bhattarai

Foreign employment has become one of the central pillars of the Nepali economy. According to the World Bank Report 2011, remittance constitutes 20 percent of the country’s GDP. Even at the household level, labour migration has become one of the main livelihood means and a major contributing factor for the reduction of poverty.

Labour migration is not a new phenomenon in the context of Nepali society. Nepali nationals have been migrating in search of income and livelihood opportunities for the past 235 years. However, the present migration has a different nature. Now, a great deal of migration takes place for the purpose of unskilled jobs. Present day migration is more important in terms of its magnitude and its contribution to the national economy.

After the political change of 1990, migration to the Middle East and Southeast Asia increased dramatically. Liberal policies of the government in line with waves of globalisation and market opportunities in the source countries helped increase labour migration. It is estimated that approximately 2.2 million Nepalis are working as migrant workers in various countries. It is estimated that 10 per cent of labour migrants are female. Among the migrants, nearly 90 percent are working in Qatar, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait.

It is a discouraging factor that a large percentage of migrant workers is engaged in unskilled and low-wage jobs. According to an estimate, only 2 percent foreign labour migrants are skilled, 23 percent are semi-skilled and 75 percent are unskilled. If we see from the prospective of the age group, a large number (80 percent) is in the 20-30 year bracket while most migrants are high school drop-outs. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, the number of absentee population is 2 million and about 56 percent households receive remittances. While talking about benefits, we shall not forget serious issues of cheating, fraud, exploitation, family disintegration and inhuman treatment tolerated by workers in host countries and its ever-increasing social cost.

The government has initiated process to formulate a foreign employment policy. It is trying to make the policy more worker-friendly by accommodating new concerns in line with the changed scenario in both the source and destination countries. To fulfil the objective of making foreign employment safe, decent and systematic, the government has promulgates the Foreign Employment Act and Regulations.

The Act and Regulations have been enforced primarily to respond to an increased amount of exploitation at various levels of migration. The Act and Regulations provide a great deal of protection to migrant workers and have provisions of punishment for the wrongdoers. Some major legal provisions are as follows:

1. It has tried to establish the rights of equality for both men and women in foreign employment. There is also positive discrimination in favour of women and disadvantaged groups.

2. Establishment of Welfare Fund with contributions from migrants is another important provision to ensure social security of workers. The Act has clearly mentioned the modality and the repatriation procedure, which can be used also to support the deceased migrant’s family.

3. Foreign Employment Court planned to be set up in cities other than Kathmandu.

4. Compulsory insurance of workers.

5. The government can send workers to foreign countries having diplomatic ties through stated own agencies or private businesses.

6. There is provision of deposit from the recruiting agency and security measures to protect the migrant workers.

Major institutions involved in foreign employment management are the Ministry of Labour and Transport Management (MoLT), the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE), the Foreign Employment Promotion Board (FEPB), diplomatic missions and the Foreign Employment Tribunal. DoFE is responsible for the regulation, FEPB is responsible for the promotion and welfare activities and the tribunal is responsible for legal decisions on cases filed. The MoLTM has authority over the policies to be adopted in foreign employment.

The government has a special arrangement to send Nepali workers to Korea under the EPS (Employment Permission System), which is famous for the comparatively low migration cost, safety and transparency in service delivery. Nepal has also signed an agreement with the Japan government on sending industrial trainees to enhance the technical capacity of Nepali citizens and to fill the human resource gap of the Japanese industrialist manpower.

Nepal has signed memoranda of understanding with the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, South Korea, and Japan (JITCO). MoUs with Malaysia and Lebanon are in the pipeline. Such bilateral agreements between two countries are important for the protection of the rights of migrant workers.

The UN convention on the protection of the rights of migrants and their family members can be helpful to solve many of the migrants’ problems. Nepal should approach international agencies to convince host countries to respect the rights of migrants and to monitor their situation.

The government has started reforms to make foreign employment decent, safe and systematic. DoFE has been making efforts to promote good governance in service delivery. Strict measures have been taken to ensure protection of migrants by compulsory implementation of contracts. Insurance scheme aimed at workers has been revisited to ensure more benefits in favour of migrants. Recently, the re-approval system has been started to bring the workers to the social safety net targeting those who want to continue on the same job after completing their first tenure. Time-bound and ‘first come first served’ delivery mechanism has been developed to provide prompt and fair services. Similarly, all cash transactions have been channelled through the banks.

To ensure transparency and to promote broader coordination among agencies concerned, Information Technology has been used intensively. Free legal assistance to the victims and volunteer mobilisation has been started in collaboration with non-governmental agencies. To prevent the malpractices and cheating, lot number has been made mandatory while advertising vacancies.

Furnishing the contract paper in Nepali has been made mandatory to make it easy for workers to understand the stated terms and conditions. Recently, the department has filed some cases against companies with a large number of fraudulent cases.

Nepal is doing its best to organise the booming foreign employment industry through reforms in labour policies, law amendment and signing bilateral agreements and MoUs with destination countries. Stakeholders must work hand in hand to make sure all goes well with migrant workers both inside and outside the nation.

Bhattarai is joint-secretary at the Ministry of Labour & Transport Management

Published on: 7 February 2012 | The Kathmandu Post