“A mega construction company operating in Algeria has demanded 1,300 Nepali workers, majority of whom are blue-collar workers, and has offered a salary of $300 to $700 per month, excluding overtime pay,” Som Bataju, proprietor of SOS manpower agency, told Republica. “If we get permission on time, we can send workers to Algeria by the end of next month.”
The company has demanded workers of different skill levels, ranging from technicians to masons and carpenters.
Bataju said service charge for arranging jobs would be around Rs 80,000 per person. “The employer company has fixed a working hour of 10 hours per day. But we have replied to them that the working hour should not exceed eight hours a day,” Bataju added.
Along with Algeria, Mauritius has also offered employment opportunities to Nepali workers through institutional channel. As of today, Nepali workers have been managing to enter the African nation through individual channel.
Neeta International Manpower, a Nepali recruiting agency, has sought permission from the DoFE to send Nepali workers to the island located off the African continent in the south west Indian ocean. A company has offered $134 per month for Nepali workers willing to work as machine operators.
“Though Mauritius is a new destination and a safer place to work, the salary offer is not so lucrative. However, we have forwarded the application to the Ministry of Labor and Transport Management to issue permission for the agency to initiate the sending process,” said Mohan Krishna Sapkota, director general, DoFE.
The recruiting company has offered a service charge of Rs 17,000 per person.
Meanwhile, some manpower agencies have already sought permission from the MoLTM to send Nepali workers to Poland, Ukraine and Cyprus. However, the MoLTM is yet to approve their application. Likewise, the government has recently approved Nepali recruiting agencies to send Nepali workers to Libya and Romania. The government had granted permission to send workers to Libya on May last year and Romani a month ago.
According to the DoFE, a total of 285 Nepali blue-collar workers have already left for Libya to work in the fast-growing construction sector.
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