Foreign Employment Status: Is it spreading like a virus?
March 4, 2019 | Investopaper
Shila Kunwar
Foreign Employment these days has been increasing at a high rate. With the hope for a better life, with the hope for a better future and with the hope to increase the living standard, many youths are motivated to go for foreign employment. 786,564 new permits have been issued for more than 110 destination countries, in the two years between 2015 and 2017. Nepal receives remittance income worth NPR 699 billion (USD 6.56 billion) from its citizens employed overseas, more than one-quarter of national GDP, the fourth-highest proportion in the world. There is no doubt that foreign employment has played its highest role contributing to the development of the economic sector of our country.
But all this has come at a fairly high cost. Working in a foreign land is not easy. Thousands of Nepali workers have died while working overseas, some are prisoned, some are forced there to stay illegally. Many return home with traumatic experience of abuse and exploitation. Due to lack of awareness and proper legal knowledge, many people decide to go abroad through agents, who are not legally authorized. As a result, they are cheated in the name of foreign employment. As per law, no individual can send any person for foreign employment. They can be sent through authorized manpower only. The total number of complaints registered in the year 2074-2075 is 2129, out of which individual complains exceed over institutional. There is an increase in individual working as agents sending people abroad because there is an increase in the number of people wanting to go abroad. There is supply because there is demand. As a result, many innocent people are cheated and their dreams get scattered. Every person from a family is abroad nowadays. Going for Foreign Employment is spreading like a virus in Nepal. This has benefited frauds and brokers more than the person going abroad and his family.
Many people are unaware of the procedure for going to foreign employment. There is insufficient staff on Department of foreign employment to provide service to 1500-2000 workers each day. We have 110 countries open for foreign employment but unfortunately only 30 have an embassy. It is high time for concerned stakeholders to be responsible to ensure security and protection to our citizens working in the foreign soil and to ensure effective migration management policy. (Protection here means the elimination of exploitation and respect for basic human rights and rights at work of all migrant workers)
“Let’s be aware and spread awareness, saving a person means saving a family, saving a family means saving a Nation”
Great job Shila !