“As Nepali workers have to waste a lot of money to get visas to Saudi Arabia through its missions in Dhaka and Mumbai, we have written to the MoFA urging it to take initiatives to set up a mission here,” Babu Ram Acharya, secretary at the MoLTM told myrepublica.com.
Foreign Employment agents said that the setting up of a Saudi mission here would spare Nepali workers of the existing problems. They have long been demanding establishment of an embassy of Saudi Arabia, the second most popular destination for Nepali workers after Qatar, in Nepal.
“We have to spend at least Rs 100,000 for trips to Bangladesh and Mumbai to get Saudi visas. The MoLTM initiative is appreciable. With the opening of Saudi mission in Nepal, we will be spared the unnecessary financial burden and waste of time,” said Som Bataju, vice president of Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies.
Saudi Arabia, home to around 500,000 Nepali workers, has received more than 277,925 Nepali workers since the last one and a half decade. As many as 48,749 Nepalis, mostly blue-collar workers, had flown to the oil-rich desert nation during the fiscal year 2008/09.
Related story
Scientists figure out how vampire bats got a taste for blood
