SHREEJANA SHRESTHA

He slept the whole night on the road on empty stomach but Naresh Saud, 26, feels rather lucky after submitting his application for employment in Korea queing for 25 hours straight braving rain and batons. 

“I stood in the queue at 4 pm yesterday and I managed to submit my form at 5 pm today (Wednesday). I can´t explain how exhausted I am,” said Suad. He added that he had no choice but to sleep on the road as there were already around 500 people standing in queue to submit their Employment Permit System (EPS) forms in Kirtipur. 

Saud said foreign employment is his compulsion as he was unable to find decent jobs at home. “Going overseas is the only option for me as it is difficult to get a job in Nepal.” Saud, who has completed his BSc, has chosen to work in the agriculture sector in Korea if selected for employment in Korea. Saud, however, shared that the government should make arragements for managing the crowd instead of deploying the police to baton-charge applicants.

Security personnel had charged batons at applicants at the Chyasal counter to control the crowd. State Minister of Labor and Employment (MoLE) Tek Bahadur Gurung told Republica that the police had to charge batons as the crowd was uncontrollable. 

Application forms are being collected from Kirtipur, Lalitpur and Chyasal and other five districts including Dadeldhura, Pokhara and Butwal. Thousands of youths had flocked to the centers to submit the forms on the first day while thousands of youths are suffering because of lack of arragements for submission of forms online. 

Dilli Ram Bastola, director of EPS Center Nepal, informed that around 18,000 forms have been collected on the first day. EPS center Nepal will collect forms for another three days. However, the quota for this year hasn´t been finalized yet. Applicants will appear for Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK) language on September 26 and 27. An aspiring migrant worker needs to pass TOPIK to get selected for employment in Korea under the EPS system. Selected Nepalis get to work in Korea for four years and 10 months.
South Korea is considered to be one of the ´lucrative´ destination for foreign employment. A Nepali migrant worker get at least 1,000 dollars per month. More than 15,000 Nepalis are working under the EPS system in Korea currently.

Published on: 14 August 2014 | Republica