New foreign employment policy targets safe migration, productive use of remittance

The government has introduced new Foreign Employment Policy aiming at promoting safe and inclusive migration, coupled with productive use of remittance.
“Use of remittance in the productive sector will ultimately create jobs back home," said spokesperson of the Ministry of Labour and Transport Management Buddhi Bahadur Khadka.
The reduction of the migration and creating jobs back in the country are important in the long run as the country will fall in the remittance trap and cannot increase productivity but import led consumerism only, if the current trend continues.
Migration that began in 1991 under the initiative of the private sector has become one of the key sources of foreign currency but the country is slowly falling in the remittance trap. In the sixth month of the current fiscal year, the country received Rs 162 billion in remittance. The rising remittance has changed the consumer pattern but the phenomenon is hurting the economy as the country has not seen use of the remittance in the productive sector but increased the import-led consumption.
If the Gulf countries face economic crisis like 2008, Nepal will have to bear the brunt as the migrant workers will start returning and the remittance inflow will drop pulling the foreign currency reserve down.
Currently, about 1,100 Nepalis leave the country every day in search of greener pasture and most of them land in Gulf countries — Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman. Malaysia — the largest host to Nepali migrant workers — hires around 25 per cent of the total foreign job aspirants every month. It is believed that about 3.5 million Nepali migrant workers are in 108 countries but only 2.2 million workers have been documented at the Department of Foreign Employment. Safeguarding the rights of the remaining 1.3 million undocumented or illegal migrant workers is a challenge to the government.
The policy also aims at increasing the responsibility and accountability of outsourcing agencies or their agents towards migrant workers. "Safe migration is not possible without making outsourcing agencies accountable, so the policy has a major focus on it," Khadka said.
The Department of Foreign Employment has already started investigating fraud outsourcers according to laws governing human trafficking. The new policy was drafted according to the suggestions of the high-level committee headed by Dr Ganesh Gurung which also plans to use remittance in the productive sector and generate employment. "It is an ambitious ," labour expert Dr Chiranjivi Nepal said, adding, "If the government is able to decrease the dependency on foreign jobs by 10 per cent and create jobs back at home, it will be a big achievement."
The government had issued the Foreign Employment Bond worth Rs 3 billion and Rs 1 billion in fiscal years 2009-10 and 2010-11 but failed to sell to the migrant workers.
Actually, the government had planned to issue bonds worth Rs 7 billion in 2009-10 but slashed to Rs 3 billion due to the global economic slowdown.
The policy aims to mobilise diplomatic missions to safeguard the rights of Nepali migrant workers in foreign destinations. "The government also wants to establish labour desks in destination countries," said Khadka. Currently, the government has a labour desk only at Tribhuwan International Airport (TIA). Labour attachés in major destination countries — Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Malaysia, South Korea and Kuwait — have not been as active as anticipated.