Migrant workers who have returned from foreign jobs have asked the government to provide financial support to start enterprises in the country. The government should bring a special package for returnee migrant workers to utilise their skills, they said in an interaction today.

“I have been operating a pig farm and I want to expand it but there is no agency to support me,” said a returnee woman migrant worker Laxmi Thapa. According to her, cooperatives are ready to provide loans but their interest rates are too high. “I will not be able to make profits paying 18 per cent interest to cooperatives,” she said, adding that she is looking for a loan with an interest that is below 10 per cent.

Nandamaya Pun, another returnee migrant worker from Pokhara, said that she is facing problems feeding her family because she has not received support to expand her poultry farm. “Banks are not ready to invest in us because we are internal migrants,” she said. She is living in Pokhara to educate her children and running a small poultry farm.

Migrant workers who have just returned from foreign jobs have been looking for technical and financial support to start businesses in the country. “I have experience in managing labour in the realty sector but it is hard to find a job here,” said Khemnath Poudel, a migrant worker who worked for 10 years in the realty business in Dubai.

According to him, he has been planning to start a human resource agency to provide labour to Nepali housing companies. Currently, I am exploring the market but there is no agency to support me in realising my dream, he added.

Returnee migrant workers have been seeking technical and financial support to start businesses in the country but they have not been getting support from government agencies. The Foreign Employment Promotion Board, the welfare body of the outsourcing sector, has started entrepreneurship development programmes but it is associated with financial institutions.

The board has been helping returnee women migrant workers, mainly victims of foreign employment, said acting executive director of the board Girija Sharma. “The programme needs to be expanded across the country. The board alone cannot start entrepreneurship programmes in such a large scale,” she said.

The government does not have a record of returnee migrant workers. However, it is believed that about 40 per cent migrant workers rejoin foreign jobs and the remaining want to join jobs in the country or start their own business. If so, the government has to provide jobs or enterprises development support to over 250,000 people. However, there is a solution.

“We should identify the needs of returnee migrant workers and plan accordingly,” suggested programme manager at UN Women Saru Shrestha. The board could start employment oriented or self-reliant trainings nationwide focusing on women migrant workers. “Financial help should be linked to banks and financial institutions,” she suggested.

According to UN Women, about 20/22 per cent of around 40,000 women migrant workers seek support for livelihood. The government, the board and international agencies should manage it, she said.

Currently, the government and not-governmental organisations have been providing entrepreneurship trainings to about 800 people.

Published on: 20 December 2012 | The Himalayan Times