November 9: Twenty two-year-old Keshav Bhandari of Ghodaghodi Municipality-5, Deukalia, in Kailali district is heading towards Malaysia today. He is heading towards Malaysia for a house-keeping job.

Bhandari is just a representative case. Scores of others like him are traveling abroad on a daily basis for foreign employment. According to government data, around two thousand aspiring migrant workers from Nepal visit Malaysia on a daily basis.

The election is just around the corner but this has not stopped people heading for greener pastures abroad.

The elections to the House of Representatives and Provincial Assemblies will be held on November 20 later this month.

The election is just two weeks away but the youths are not bothered about it at all. Twenty eight-year-old Jeevan Mahata, another young man from Naugad Rural Municipality-4, Hopari in Daarchula district is also preparing to go abroad for foreign employment. He is also heading towards Malaysia for house-keeping job.

Those who are heading abroad for foreign employment say that they are compelled to go abroad to make their ends meet.

“We cannot stay back for the election,” says Mahata, adding, “The election will hardly provide us two square a meal. We have to manage our expenses ourselves.”

Bhandari also expressed similar views. The youths have been compelled to go abroad for jobs because the government has failed to create employment opportunities in the country itself.

In an average, 2246 people are leaving the country for foreign employment on a daily basis. This  data is based on the labour permits acquired by aspiring workers  in the first three months of the current fiscal  year.

According to the data of the Department of Foreign Employment, a total of 202,148 people have acquired work permits for foreign employment in the first quarter of the current fiscal year. The figure is 49 percent more compared to the number of people acquiring work permits during the corresponding period of last fiscal year, when a total of 101,139 people had acquired such permits.

According to the department, most of the people have acquired labour permits to work in Malaysia this year. A total of 86,918 Nepalis were granted permission to work in Malaysia in the first three months of the current fiscal year.

After Malaysia, most of the workers are heading towards Qatar (34,188) followed by Saudi Arabia (24,350) and the UAE (21,460).

Foreign employment expert Som Luitel says that the youths of Nepal are forced to go abroad for employment because the government has not made necessary arrangements for their employment within the country. He says that the government hasn’t introduced any effective plans to stop the brain drain.

On the other hand, government authorities claim that they have been conducting various programmes to retain the workforce in the country. Critics however believe that most of those programmes are focused on providing employment to the cadres of political parties.