‘Skills learnt during foreign employment should be invested in nation’s development’

KATHMANDU: Minister for Labour, Employment and Social Security, Sharat Singh Bhandari, has stressed the need for skills and capital earned in the course of foreign employment should be invested in the nation’s development.

Addressing a programme organized by Tribhuvan University, Central Department of Population Studies and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) on the occasion of International Migrants Day here today, Minister Bhandari said the skills and capital earned in the course of working abroad should be invested in the self-employment sector for contributing to the nation’s economic development.

“There are many youths from Nepal who have gone abroad for foreign employment. They are allowed to work there only for a certain time period. It would be of great help for the nation’s development if the skills and capital that these youths have earned there could be brought and used in Nepal,” Minister Bhandari said.

According to him, the government is making arrangements for providing collateral-free loans targeting the workers aspiring to go for foreign employment so that they will not be compelled to take loans for high interest rates.

Stating that the government is serious regarding the safety of migrant workers, the Labour, Employment and Social Security Minister urged the youths to go on foreign employment only through the authorized agencies and after acquiring the required skills.

He stated that the government is carrying out works with the goal of addressing the problems faced by Nepalis who have gone abroad without taking work permit and have landed in trouble there.

Minister Bhandari also shared on the occasion that the Ministry has already started taking information related to the unemployment situation at the local levels, the number of local youths who have gone abroad for employment and to which countries and what skills the local returnee migrant workers have acquired and what employment opportunities are available at the local levels, among other topics, in coordination with each and every local level.

He stated that the Internal Employment Division has been set up at the Ministry for the promotion of domestic employment, and employment and various training opportunities are being explored through it.

Minister Bhandari said the compensation amount provided to the families of those workers who died in the course of foreign employment has been increased from Rs 700 thousand to one million rupees.

He also informed that the government is working vigorously to enter into a Labour Agreement with Malaysia for five years.

“We have been saying that the country is empty of youths and there is an exodus of youths due to brain drain. Eighty per cent of the seven million workers who have gone on foreign employment have gone to the Gulf countries. They have not gone there forever, they have gone seeking work opportunities,” he explained.

Secretary at the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security, Mukunda Prasad Niraula, said that the Ministry is carrying out a study on National Migration Policy by forming an experts’ committee. He added that the government is serious so that no Nepali who has gone on foreign employment should face any problem.

Registrar of Kathmandu University, Prof Dr Achyut Wagle called on the government to work with utmost seriousness to build an environment for creating adequate employment within the country. He also stressed that Nepal should devise a clear policy on foreign employment and migration.

IOM Chief of Mission for Nepal Ms Helene Fors and Chief of the TU Central Department of Population Studies, Prof Dr Yogendra Bahadur Gurung, among the speakers, said that lack of employment and education has created a migration problem globally, and all should join hands to address this problem.