Dilliram, Bastola, Director of Korea Branch of Employment Permit System (EPS), work permit of around 1300 Nepali migrant workers expired in July but they are still staying in Korea. "These workers have been affected one or the other way by the earthquake. Some of them might have lost house, business, or even family members to the disaster. And they are aware that creating or getting job in Nepal in such situation is not going to be easy," said Bastola.Bastola said that these workers might be in dilemma on their next step. However, their illegal stay in the country is not going to do well for Nepal, he noted. "When we talked to them regarding the matter, they told us that they are hesitating to get back to Nepal due to the deteriorating situation in the aftermath of the earthquake. But, their illegal stay is not good for the country," he said.
Bastola informed that around 18 percent of Nepali migrant workers in Korea have been living illegally. They had left Nepal in 2010 and had permit to work in the country till July 2015. "7000 people had left then. We have already directed them to repatriate and requested the Korean government as well to make it easy for them," he said.
Till last year only 4.5 percent of Nepali migrant workers were found to be staying illegally in Korea. The whooping difference this year is apparently due to the earthquake, Koirala said.
Korean government had introduced EPS for Nepali workers since 2008. Till now, around 33,500 Nepalis have already landed in Korea for work. In the beginning, they were given work permit for three years. Later, the permit was extended for 22 more months. Those who return after their work permit gets over are given chance to go again by completing the due process as any new migrant worker.
Koirala said that the workers staying illegally in Korea need to be forced back to Nepal soon. "We have been working on that. We try to encourage them in different ways," he said.
According to Koirala, the EPS office has been considering providing soft loan, income generation skills and trainings and in facilitating them to set up their business. "We show them documentaries on the success stories of returnee migrant workers. So that such stories would boost up confidence in them to get back home," he said.
Lee Dong Sirk, Director for Nepal Branch of Human Resource Development Service in Korea stated that Korea has been studying over the overstay issue of Nepali migrant workers. He said that number of illegally staying Nepalis has shot up. "After the earthquake we have found the number of Nepali migrant workers overstaying in Korea has increased. It is not good. This might affect the quota Korea provides to Nepali workers," he said.
He informed that due to such issues among Vietnamese workers, Korea had cancelled work permits to them and did not provide even single quota to the country in 2013. "Every country should have some policy to prevent such kind of illegal stay of their people in other country," he suggested.
He further stated that Nepal's report so far was good. That was the reason Nepal was gradually provided with additional quotas for migrant workers. "In 2013, 3.6 migrant workers from Nepal had overstayed. Next year, the number was 4.5 percent. Now it is 18 percent," he said.
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