Respect Our Workers Abroad

The request placed on our government by over 100 Nepali laborers working in Libya and Sudan, which is yet to be identified as a labor destination meaning that is illegal to [break] send Nepali workers there, to rescue them speaks volumes about the need to urgently overhaul the country’s foreign employment sector. The news about the treacherous working conditions of 94 workers in Libya and another 22 workers in Sudan came to light after the Nepali missions in both the countries communicated to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) about the matter. That most Nepali workers abroad are vulnerable may not be news but the requests by the workers in Libya and Sudan reinforces the point that something needs to be done urgently.



It is a matter of shame that while Nepali workers are forced to live and work in treacherous conditions abroad, MoFA and the Ministry of Labor and Transport Management (MoLTM) are embroiled in a controversy over the appointment of labor attachés. The ministries are fighting following MoFA’s refusal to endorse the appointment of labor attachés by MoLTM to Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Oman, Israel and Kuwait. MoFA maintains that the selections were not made on the basis of open competition. The fight degenerated to an unexpected low a few days earlier when Minister for Labor and Transport Management Mohamad Aftab Alam manhandled Foreign Secretary Madan Kumar Bhattarai to exert pressure on MoFA to endorse the appointments.



We can only ignore the sector at our own peril as it is remittance that has been so far keeping our economy afloat. In the last fiscal year, the country received a whopping Rs 209 billion in the form of remittance, which is equivalent to 21 percent of our Gross Domestic Product. In the first eight months of this fiscal year, foreign workers have already sent in Rs 144 billion to Nepal.



The statistics clearly point to the fact that we need to start treating our compatriots abroad with all the respect that they deserve. As a start, the government immediately needs to rescue the 116 workers in Libya and Sudan. MoFA and MoLTM must also quickly resolve the row over the appointment of labor attachés. The other important task that our government should get down to doing without any further delay is to sign labor agreement with countries that we have opened up as labor destinations. There are 108 such countries but unfortunately we have labor agreement with just South Korea, United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain. Time for our government to wake up from its slumber!

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