Agreement to review labor agreement between Nepal and Qatar

KATHMANDU: DEC. 3 – The labor agreement between Nepal and Qatar will be reviewed. The agreement was reached at the fourth meeting of the Nepal-Qatar Joint Committee, according to the Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Security.

A labor agreement was signed between Nepal and Qatar in 2005. The agreement is to be reviewed.

The meeting also agreed that Qatar would work as per Nepal’s proposal for the socio-economic reintegration of Nepalis who have returned to Qatar for employment.

During the meeting, it was agreed to make Qatar Visa Center more organized and to establish training centers in all the provinces of Nepal for the enhancement of the skills of the workers.

Similarly, the Qatari team has requested Nepal to lift the ban on domestic workers. It has been agreed to form a bilateral joint committee to study the issue and to include this issue in the review of the agreement after the suggestion of the committee.

Prior to the meeting, the Qatari team had a discussion with Minister for Labor, Employment and Social Security Krishna Kumar Shrestha.

They have also urged Minister Shrestha to lift Nepal’s ban on domestic workers in Qatar. However, Nepal has stated that domestic workers will be allowed to go to Qatar only after fulfilling 7 different conditions, while Qatar has agreed to fulfill those conditions.

Nepal has raised the issue in the meeting by emphasizing to guarantee social security to the workers, to provide security in the workplace, and to provide services such as health care and insurance.

The meeting will be chaired by Binu Bajracharya, Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Labor on behalf of Nepal. The meeting was attended by the Deputy Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Pushparaj Bhattarai and Deputy Secretary at the Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Security Dr. Thaneshwor Bhusal. Secretary of the Ministry Eknarayan Aryal, while presiding over the fourth meeting of the Joint Committee, presented the topic of discussion to the Qatari side on behalf of Nepal.

The Qatari delegation was led by Mohammed Hassan Al-Obaidli, Secretary of the Ministry of Labor of Qatar. The delegation included Hamad Ali Afifa, head of the International Coordination Department, and senior officials from the Ministry of Home Affairs and Labor.