Nepal: Foreign Employment and need for a Refined Foreign policy
Anjan Shakya
Most of the people use to go to different countries in order to look for foreign employment, higher education, migration etc. In the globalization age, the mobility of the people from one country to another country has become the potential destination for the foreign employment or migration in the recent years.
In 1768, since the unification of the country- Nepal, the Nepalese people have gradually started to settle their livelihood across the national border. In the history of foreign employment of Nepal, the Nepalese people had formally taken initiative for having employment in the foreign countries in the early 19th century. It is noticed that migration had taken place since 1814 through Gorkha Soldiers recruited under the British Army.
The Nepalese people have started to move in the Gulf countries since 1985 for foreign employment. Such trend for foreign employment has been increasingly continued in the recent years. It is also recorded that 107 countries are open for foreign employment as decided by the Nepal Government. Different data in relation to the employment in the foreign countries are available. The inconsistency of available data may confuse the people (Readers). However, it is also estimated that more than 1.4 million Nepalese citizens are working in various sectors in various countries.
It is noted that Malaysia is the top destination country where around 73,000 Nepalese people are estimated to be working in the countries like Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Israel etc. It shows that people are taking keen interest in foreign employment. This has greatly helped reduce unemployment problem on the one hand and generate much income and volume of remittances on the other. It can be claimed that the remittances have helped support for the social transformation and increase of business relation with the foreign countries.
The contribution of remittance to GDP was increasingly significant over the years. It is also reported that the remittances are also informally channeled, and that of remittance from the formal channel is recorded to have been as approximately US $ 1 billion every year in the country. Looking at the contribution in the national economy the remittance has played a vital role during a decade- long armed conflict and reducing poverty to some extent. This is a good indication for the interest the country. But it has to be maintained the country’s position outside the world. In fact the remittance is the invisible source of national income. It is also expected that it may increase in the following days if its source or mechanism is developed in a transparent manner, and if its channel is through banks. Besides them remittance policy, system, process, cooperation, coordination, documentation, programs, promotions etc. must be required to be improved.
As mentioned earlier, the Nepalese workers are taking keen interest for the foreign employment in order to find out better opportunities. However, there exists challenge as well as opportunities. It is also reported that most of the Nepalese workers have been exploited not getting the amount of remuneration as mentioned in their agreement papers. They have not been informed the nature of their job. As a result, they have to face accident, physical abuse, injuries, grief and even unexpected deaths etc due to the unknown nature of their jobs. In some of cases, their jobs have not been secured because of not meeting employer’s needs. In such circumstances, new jobs have to be looked for. They will have to approach to the broker for seeking new jobs for them who may cheat them in terms of taking much commission from job seekers. This type of exploitation is happening time to time. These are the bitter experiences and obstacles the Nepalese workers have been facing. Such incident takes place due to lack of awareness, orientation, training, inadequate information, alien culture and language barriers, fraudulent activities etc. It is therefore, necessary that all the concerned persons have to be very serious in order to avoid cheating and illegal activities. To avoid such unpleasant incident the Nepalese workers who are going abroad, they should be properly oriented or trained about the labour legal provision of the labour law of the said countries, discipline, manner, technology and technical and other related awareness. Likewise, it is essential to monitor channels, terms and conditions before the implementation of actions.
The management of foreign employment and remittance are facing complexities. To minimize them, there should be an agreement through the diplomatic channel between both the countries of demand and supply of job. It is also required to sincerely handle the issues created. Recently, it is also mentioned that the Government of Nepal has signed labor agreements with the Republic of Korea, State of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Since the signatory countries are committed to be responsible and accountable for settling issues amicably, it is expected to protect the Nepalese workers going abroad in order to make this sector much secure, utilization of the remittance in investment sector or in productive sector promoting foreign employment. The policy should be strengthened and appropriate policies should be adopted for looking after long term point of view. The administrative sector handled by the bureaucratic level has to make them very effective and efficient for strengthening regulatory activities and to resolve the problems. The recruiting agencies have to take responsibility and accountability for making their dealing transparent. The Nepalese workers, who want to go to the interested country have to be very serious. They should have necessary information and details of jobs are to be collected whether the agency is reliable or not. The new Foreign Employment Act and the Labor Migration policy have to be implemented to protect the labor rights of the concerned persons.
The present diplomacy agendas – economic, social, culture, tourism, hydro-power, trade and commerce etc. under the Nepal’s foreign policy are to be seriously considered in a positive way. In the new context, foreign employment is also one of the burning or crucial agendas of diplomacy among them the present diplomacy must facilitate to promote many economic sectors including poverty reduction.
As mentioned earlier, the remittances have generated national economic growth. This is the high time to put emphasis on the top priority. Certainly, foreign employment has caused many implications on carrying out the foreign policy in a pragmatic way. However, the diplomatic missions have to take timely initiations and to play active role to control and protect foreign employment and to maintain bilateral relation and responsibilities in relation to the Nepalese workers in the foreign labor market. It can be suggested that the labour desk should be installed if it is required in the particular identified missions as per heavy size of the labor market. The government / diplomatic mission has to take into account for establishing welfare fund and make contributions from its own resource and collecting a certain amount of contribution from the Nepalese workers going aboard and working in the foreign countries where they are working.
It is also essential to reorient on foreign policy in the days ahead. There should be mutual coordination and cooperation between the delivering and receiving countries. To raise voice, on behalf of the Nepalese workers the frequent exchange visits at high level, diplomatic level, bureaucratic levels and track II levels are required for making good relationship between both the countries. In addition, there should be a close coordination among the ministries of labor, finance, foreign, and departments under their respective ministries to establish good networking between the concerned countries for effective solution to avail opportunities from the foreign employment to boost up Nepalese economy
