Govt to permit Nepalis to work in Israel
The government is all set to grant permission to Nepalis to work in Israel after Israel resumed issuance of fresh working visas after a gap of 15 months.
The Ministry of Labor and Transport Management (MoLTM) Monday instructed the Department of Labor and Employment Promotion (DoLEP) to resume issuance of permission to aspirant jobseekers after the Israeli embassy started giving visas to Nepalis in the last few days.
“The Israeli embassy in Kathmandu informed MoLTM on July 25 about the resumption of visa issuance to Nepali job seekers. So, we have directed DoLEP to grant fresh permissions,†a senior official at MoLTM told the Post.
Keshar Bahadur Baniya, director general of DoLEP, said the process of issuing fresh permits to Nepalis vying to work in Israel would be resumed immediately.
Moreover, MoLTM has already forwarded to the Embassy, a list of job aspirants who were previously issued permission and were queuing up for jobs when it stopped issuing visas.
According to officials, 692 workers had made final preparations to leave for Israel last year when it suddenly stopped issuing working visas to Nepalis.
The Israeli embassy ceased to entertain applications for working visas from the second week of May 2007, citing its government’s new policy that made it mandatory to all the source countries to set up diplomatic missions or appoint labor attachés in Israel.
The move had left around 2,000 Nepali women, who had already spent a sizable amount of money for training as domestic help, in a lurch. Several foreign employment agencies that had made large investments to acquire labor demands from Israel were also left worried about their future.
Subsequent to the decision, Nepal set up a mission and appointed a labor attaché in Tel Aviv last year, paving the way for employment in Israel — the most popular destination for Nepali women workers.
Israel had also asked Nepal to sign a special agreement with the International Organization of Migration (IOM) to deal with Nepali workers in Israel. Nepal fulfilled this condition last year.
Of late, Israel has also put forth a condition to involve IOM in the recruiting process. More than two dozen foreign employment agencies are involved in sending workers to Israel, which has already absorbed more than 12,000 workers so far.
