CHITWAN, July 24: More than two and a half billion rupees enter Nepal every day in the form of remittances. According to Nepal Rastra Bank data, youths who have gone for foreign employment have been sending 2 billion 745 million rupees to Nepal daily.

In the 11 months of the fiscal year 2078/79, 9 trillion 5 billion 380 million rupees have entered Nepal from abroad. Most remittances have come in the months of March, April and May. Out of that, the highest amount of 93.38 billion rupees entered Nepal in the month of March. It is mentioned in the data of Rastra Bank that 91.07 billion was received in the month of March, 87.05 billion in April, and 93.39 billion in May. Again, 83.95 billion rupees were received in the month of October, while the lowest amount was 71.76 billion rupees from abroad in the month of January. The remittance inflow is increasing every year. In the year 2077/78, 9 trillion 61 billion rupees of remittances were received. Similarly, in the year 2076/77, foreign remittances of 8 trillion 75 billion rupees have been received.

Journalist Rudra Khadka, quoting the report of the Central Bureau of Statistics, said that even though remittances are received, 78.9 percent of the amount is spent on daily expenses. Khadka, who came to provide training in the orientation program for media workers on foreign employment law held in Bharatpur on Saturday, said that the money received from abroad is less invested in industry and business. "Basically, Nepal is dependent on remittances", he said, "The money received has gone to foreign countries due to various reasons." Remittances account for an average of 25 percent of gross domestic product in Nepal. Of that, 7.8 percent was spent on debt repayment, 4.5 percent on purchasing household goods, 3.5 percent on education, 2.5 in capital formation, 0.5 for business and 0.6 percent has been saved.

According to Som Luintel, the founder of the People Forum for Human Rights, which has been working on foreign employment, the government of Nepal has formally opened up foreign employment to 110 countries, but has made labor agreements and contracts only in 5 countries. 7 million people have gone for foreign employment. This figure does not include people from India and foreigners by illegal process. Among them, 90 percent of young people went to Gulf countries and Malaysia and 10 percent went to other countries. Luintel informed that 74.5 percent of those who go for foreign employment go without learning skills. Only 1.5 percent of people learn skills.

He said that most of the young people are cheated in foreign employment due to lack of skills. "Young people go to work abroad. Most of them do not have the language and skills of the respective place,” he said, “Such workers are not loved by employers.” He said that concerned parties should pay attention to the work of taking legal information. There is widespread fraud in the name of foreign employment. Since 2011, 26,200 people have given 953.2 million rupees to the victims by the initiative of People's Forum, Luitel said.

Due to Covid-19, 572,571 Nepalis returned home from other countries including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Malaysia and other countries in the previous year alone. Purushottam Prajapati of People Forum said that the Covid-19 crisis management center rescued 160, 470 people from UAE in August of last year 2078/079.

He also said that laws are necessary to organize foreign employment. Foreign Employment Law was introduced in 2042. He said that there is ambiguity in many matters. He claims that the Foreign Employment Act 2074 is also insufficient. Chairman of the Law, Justice and Human Rights Committee Krishnabhakta Pokharel has said that Nepali economy has been lifted by foreign employment. He also said that the state should work to solve the problems of the foreign employment sector.

 
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• foreign_employment
 
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