PAWAN PANDEY

KATHMANDU, August 13

A newly formulated draft of the labour migration policy has put the experts and the manpower agencies at odds.

It took the team, under the coordination of senior labour migration expert Dr. Ganesh Gurung, nine months to prepare the draft, which was submitted to the Minister for Labour, Employment and Social Security Sarat Singh Bhandari on Sunday.

Dr. Keshav Bashyal, Dr. Amrita Sharma, Manju Gurung and Juna Mathema were the other members in the team while Deepak  Dhakal was its member secretary.

The draft has envisioned making labour migration a choice instead of an obligation and prioritising sending skilled and semi-skilled workers. 

“We need to stop sending unskilled workers aboard as they have been the most vulnerable overseas,” Gurung said.

But, more than half of the Nepalis working abroad belong to the unskilled category, the Labour Migration Report 2022, which categorises Nepali migrant workers as unskilled, semi-skilled, skilled, highly skilled and professional, shows. 

The report also shows a steady rise in the number of skilled workers going abroad, from 32.6% in fiscal year 2019/20 to 38.35 in fiscal year 2021/22.

Despite a steep surge in remittance inflow to the country in recent years, a total of 13,722 workers have died and 3,330 others have been injured while working abroad, according to Tika Ram Dhakal, spokesperson at the Foreign Employment Board, the government agency responsible for the welfare of Nepali migrant workers.

The actual figure might be much higher as the board’s data includes the records of only the documented workers whose families have claimed and received the compensation in case of deaths and injuries. 

Remittance inflow to the country increased by 19.3% to Rs 1,327.51 billion in the first 11 months, until mid-June, of the last fiscal year, compared to an increase of 22.7% in the same period of the previous year, according to the Nepal Rastra Bank.

In the review period, a total of 422,936 Nepalis, both institutional and individual, took the first time approval for foreign employment and as many as 262,705 others renewed their labour permits.

The team has prioritised ensuring safe and decent foreign jobs by identifying the domestic labour market demand and creating to the labour force accordingly; lifting the bar for women to work abroad; and starting regulating Nepalis working in India.

One of the most important aspects of the new policy, according to Gurung, is the requirement for the government to study and identify the domestic labour market demand before sending workers abroad.

“The relevant authorities, then, need to search for markets with a similar demand abroad,” said Gurung. “It will help Nepali youths to find a job or become self-employed after returning home, ultimately helping in their reintegration which has been a neglected issue.” 

The draft has also articulated that a worker should be able to go to work abroad for free. 

“Either employers should bear all the cost or the government can set up a mechanism for financing it,” said Gurung.   

Recruiting agencies, however, say the zero-cost jobs are practically impossible.

Despite Gurung’s claim that the team held discussions with all the concerned stakeholders to draft the policy, Rajendra Bhandari, president of the Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies (NAFEA), denied it, saying that the zero-cost job provision has been included in the policy randomly.

“Can it be implemented?” asked Bhandari. “Moreover, who can actually determine it? A labour sending country or the receiving one?”

Previous attempts of the government to make employers pay the recruiting charges have been unsuccessful. 

The government implemented the free-visa, free-ticket rule nine years ago, making it compulsory for employers in Malaysia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman to bear all the cost of the visa processing and air tickets when they hire Nepali workers.

According to the rule, workers need to pay no more than Rs 10,000 to recruiting agencies in service fees if their employers would not bear the cost. But, its implementation has been poor as workers flying to these countries still pay a huge sum in recruitment fees. 

Bhandari argued that further discussions need to be held on the whole migration cycle before finalising the labour migration policy. “We are not happy with the draft submitted,” Bhandari added. “It cannot be accepted.”

The experts have also said that women should not be barred from working overseas.

Nepali women have faced a series of prohibitions from the government in labour mobility over the years. 

While men are under immense pressure to seek foreign jobs, the patriarchal society sees women from the victim-centric lens and tries to restrict their movement within the country, migration researchers claim.

The state continues to impose certain conditions, allegedly ‘almost impossible’, on women for working as domestic help in Gulf countries, one of the most available jobs for Nepali women overseas.

Observers argue that such restrictive policies over the years have compelled women to take dangerous and ‘illegal’ routes to go abroad, making them vulnerable to trafficking. 

“Instead of barring their movement citing various reasons, women should be provided training for foreign job opportunities,” Gurung added.

The draft has mentioned bringing Nepalis who travel to India for jobs under a regulation. Such workers have often been neglected by the state. There is no official data on them.  

“Most of the Nepalis working in India face typical issues, different from those working overseas,” said Gurung. “A separate body such as the Foreign Employment Board can be set up to address them.”

“Local units can provide them an identity card which would help them in their travel and to the authorities to keep their record,” Gurung added.

Receiving the draft, Minister Bhandari said that labour movement cannot be stopped as “the alternative to employment is better employment.”

“Our policies must prioritise making labour migration more orderly and producing the human resource demanded in the global market,” said Bhandari.