Nepali migrant workers have been facing various difficulties as the government has not signed bilateral labour agreement with many destination countries.

 

They have been deprived of basic rights and facilities like minimum salary, medical expenses, insurance and legal services due to this. The bilateral labour agreement is the main basis for the workers’ security.

 

Although the country has opened 108 countries as destination countries for Nepali workers, Nepal has so far signed labour agreement only with Qatar. Memoranda of understanding (MoUs) have been signed with Bahrain, Japan, South Korea, Kuwait and Israel.

 

Exchange of letters is taking place with Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Oman for signing the bilateral labour agreements, while the draft of the agreement has been prepared, ready to be sent through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Jordan and Lebanon, Spokesperson for the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Govinda Mani Bhurtel, said.

 

Bhurtel said that signing labour agreement is not all in Nepal’s control as the approval of the destination country too needs to be taken and hence the delay. He claimed that agreements would be reached with many countries very soon.

 

Executive Director of the Department of Foreign Employment, Raghu Raj Kafle, said that if possible bilateral labour agreement should be signed and if not at least MoU should be reached between the source country and the destination country before sending the workers.

 

In his view, the present problem is the result of many countries being opened as destination countries for Nepali workers without signing either the labour agreement or MoU.

 

He said the workers are facing problems like not getting their pay on time, the company seizing their passport and denying them of services, facilities, insurance and health allowances, among others.

 

Altogether 4.52 million Nepalis have gone for overseas employment as per the figures available until mid-March, since the Department of Foreign Employment started keeping records of people going for foreign employment 22 years back. This number does not include the Nepali migrant workers in India.

Of this number, 4.36 million are male and 163,294 are female.