Foreign employment department says no such decision has been taken by the government

Chandan Kumar Mandal

Nepal’s embassies have stopped approving demand letters submitted by local employers in the Gulf seeking Nepali workers, in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak, leaving officials at the department of foreign employment dismayed.

The approval process was postponed until further notice following a decision by the High-Level Coordination Committee to Control and Prevent Novel Coronavirus to suspend labour permits issued to Nepali citizens, Nepali missions in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain said in separate statements.

However, officials at the Department of Foreign Employment said the missions decided on their own without consulting the department. “We are talking to our missions to understand why they suddenly stopped verifying demand letters,” said Bhola Nath Guragain, spokesperson for the Foreign Employment Department, told the Post.

As per a 2018 directive, foreign employers who wish to hire Nepali workers, need to get approval from the Nepali foreign mission based in the country concerned.

“We are not in a situation that demands the approval process halted,” said Guragain. “The missions cannot halt the service even temporarily as we haven’t taken any decision in this regard,” he added. Guragain said such a suspension could only be enforced if a decision were taken by the Nepal government, or the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security or the Department of Foreign Employment.

Recruitment agencies, meanwhile, expressed concerns over the “arbitrary decision”, saying that such a move will only backfire on the labour migration sector, already going through upheavals due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The embassies should furnish valid reasons for halting the approval process. One agency can not simply do this on its own,” said Sujit Shrestha, general secretary of Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies, an organisation of 760 recruiting agencies in the country.

He said that the decision was taken in haste and it could clog the demand for Nepali workers in the near future. “The halt in approvals will only pile up work for the embassies,” said Shrestha. “Also, the demand letters being submitted now are for workers being recruited in next few months. This can trigger demands to slump in the coming months.”

Published on: 17 March 2020 | The Kathmandu Post