The outsourcing sector recorded a sharp fall of 15.17 per cent in Bhadra (mid-August to mid-September) due to the monsoon season — the plantation season for paddy which is a major crop of the country. Every year, worker migration falls in the season and accelerates after Kartik (mid-October to mid-November) by the end of the festival season.

About 38,297 Nepali migrant workers, including 10,210 reentrants, left the country for foreign jobs in Bhadra. The flow of foreign job aspirants was 45,417 in the first month of the current fiscal year.

The Department of Foreign Employment’s data shows that Bhadra also witnessed some changes in the top-destination list. Malaysia toppled Qatar as the destination hiring the largest number of Nepali workers, offering jobs to 12,586 workers during the period. Qatar slipped to third position and Saudi Arabia emerged as the second popular destination.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar hired 9,724 and 8,351 Nepali migrant workers, respectively. UAE and Kuwait were fourth and fifth in the list, hiring 5,051 and 811 workers, respectively.

Other popular destinations in the Gulf were Bahrain and Oman. They hired 406 and 344 workers, respectively. New destinations –– Russia and Cyprus –– hired 21 and 14 workers, respectively. South Korea hired 219 Nepalis through the Employment Permit System.

Countries in the eurozone like Germany and Finland offered jobs to 14 and five workers, respectively, including 12 women migrant workers. Japan and Hong Kong hired 141 and 15 Nepalis, respectively during the period.

About 1,452 Nepali women joined foreign jobs in Bhadra and only 84 women used individual contacts. The government tightened the screws on individual contacts from last month to safeguard women in foreign lands.

Published on: 20 September 2012 | The Himalayan Times