The government has already appointed labor attaches to Malaysia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia -- four major labor markets for Nepal. [break]
Babu Ram Acharya, secretary at the MoLTM, said MoF has given nod to depute labor attaches to Kuwait, South Korea, Japan and Hong Kong.
To avoid controversy in the appointment process, MoF has put certain conditions to ensure fair selection of labor attaches.
“MoF has put a condition that labor attaches should be appointed on merit basis through open completion. The candidates must be perfect in English language and should have in-depth knowledge on labor laws,” Acharya told myrepublica.com on Tuesday.
According to MoLTM, an under-secretary level attaché will be appointed to South Korea and Japan, while section officers will be deployed to Kuwait and Hong Kong.
The MoLTM had proposed the MoF to appoint labor attaches to Japan, South Korea, Kuwait, Israel, Hong Kong, Bahrain, Oman and Lebanon, which are among the top 12 labor destinations for the country with more than five thousands Nepali workers. The ministry has already prepared organization and management survey for the appointment of attaches to eight destinations.
“The process of appointing new attaches will be initiated once the cabinet meeting approves the new posts,” Acharya said.
Of the four new countries selected for the deployment of labor attaches, South Korea has labor agreement with Nepal, while Japan is taking Nepali industrial workers under Industrial Training Program (ITP) or Technical Internship Program (TIP) through Japan Industrial Training Cooperation Organization (JITCO).
Hong Kong has stopped receiving Nepali workers, citing alleged involvement of Nepali workers in illegal activities, including drug peddling and overstaying. In Kuwait, most of the Nepali workers -- the majority of which are women -- are employed in domestic help sector.
As per the Law Act 2007, the government can appoint labor attaches to countries having more than 5,000 Nepali workers.
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