Half of the worker departures in the first six months of the current fiscal year consisted of repeat migrant workers. The rest were leaving for foreign employment for the first time.

According to the Department of Foreign Employment, half of the departing workers had obtained re-entry permits to go back to the countries where they were employed. A total of 236,324 workers left for overseas jobs in the first six months (mid- July to mid-January) of the current fiscal year.

“Around 50 percent of the workers had received re-entry permits from the department for returning to their jobs after a vacation,” said Kashi Raj Dahal, director at the department. Up to the last fiscal year, there was no provision of a re-entry permission for returning to work.

The government had introduced this requirement from the current fiscal year to curb the trend of going back to work with expired employment contracts. There has been a drop in labour demand from major labour destinations particularly due to technical problems.

Hiring by Malaysia has come down to 49,258 persons (including repeat workers) from 61,077 persons in the same period last year. The fall has been attributed to Malaysia’s legalisation and amnesty scheme introduced in August last year to legalise illegal migrant workers already working there.

Under this plan, 39 percent of the 157,516 Nepali migrant workers in Malaysia had got employment last year. Dahal said that hiring of new workers by major labour markets such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar had also dropped during the review period.

He added that Saudi Arabia had stopped hiring workers with handwritten passports for a long time, and that there were also problems sending workers through agents to Qatar.

Malaysia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait are the top five labour destinations for Nepali job seekers.

Although worker departures to Qatar through agencies have declined, the trend of leaving through personal contract has soared. Qatar has emerged as the largest labour destination for Nepali migrant workers with 73,676 Nepalis getting jobs there as of the first six months this year. Saudi Arabia absorbed 45,625 Nepali workers, the UAE 43,025 and Kuwait 12,164.

The figures include repeat migrant workers getting re-entry permits from the government. According to department officials, departures to Saudi Arabia will increase as it has agreed to honour handwritten passports till 2015. They said that Malaysia too is likely to increase demand after January this year when the legalisation plan ends.

Published on: 27 January 2012 | The Kathmandu Post