Roshan Sedhai

Over 2,100 migrant workers, who were working illegally abroad, have obtained work permit from the Department of Foreign Employment under the legalisation scheme before going back to their work, officials said.

The scheme was introduced a month ago targeting to provide legal status to their work in various destination countries.

The workers receiving approval under the scheme were migrant workers who had come home during the festival season. The new scheme has seen an enthusiastic turnout of workers employed in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Kuwait, among others. The new provision, which is a part of the government’s effort to legalise illegal migrant workers, has even lured housemaids and those working in high security zone like Afghanistan.

Such scheme was also introduced in the Philippines, where the government had legalised its thousands of workers by going to their workplaces.

“Illegality of our workers has always been the root cause of many problems and the scheme is launched to make them legal gradually,” said Purna Chandra Bhattarai, director general at the DoFE. The department gives work-approval upon the submission of visa and other documents that establish workers’ association with their employer. However, the department is facing challenges to deal with many workers who want to return to their job in Afghanistan. These workers possess documents and identity cards but the US security force has not issued any visas to them as they were smuggled to Afghanistan from Dubai in chartered planes.

“We thought it would be better to be documented and leave from our own airport but it did not work,” said a Nepali employee working for the Dyn Corps International in Afghanistan. He, along with other five friends, is leaving for Afghanistan via India. The Post on Wednesday published a story on the difficulty faced by the Nepali youth and his friends.

“We waited for two whole days as requested by the DoFE but were refused the permit finally,” he said. The workers described the initiation as a good step but asked the department to be more liberal towards illegal workers.

Though there is no any official data, around one third of total 3 million Nepali migrant workers are estimated to working illegally in various countries.

Published on: 1 November 2012 | The Kathmandu Post