The Department of Foreign Employment is planning to provide services to migrant workers during the Dashain holidays. It will remain open from October 21-26 except on Dashami, said director general of the department Purnachandra Bhattarai. 

Returnee migrant workers, who plan to reenter foreign jobs immediately after Dashain, will benefit from the move, he said. The department started registering returnee migrant workers since November last year. “Workers rejoining foreign jobs are individual workers, so we have made the arrangement to facilitate them,” Bhattarai said. 

About 169,082 have registered themselves following the introduction of the registration policy. About 22,942 Nepali returnee workers registered themselves at the department in the first two months of the current fiscal year. The government decided to register migrant workers rejoining foreign jobs to provide them insurance and welfare benefit. Earlier, migrants rejoining foreign jobs after their tenure — two years in Gulf countries and three years in Malaysia — were not entitled to the benefit because their policies would have expired. 

Nepali migrant workers receive Rs 500,000 as insurance and Rs 150,000 from the Foreign Employment Promotion Board in the event of their death at the workplace.

Published On: 21 October 2012 | The Himalayan Times