Kathmandu, February 22

As many as 64,284 people have been approved re-entry for foreign employment by the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE) from mid-January till mid-February. Of them, 58,447 were male and 5,037 were female, as per the latest data released by the department.

Similarly, 39,124 have been approved for foreign employment without re-entry. Also, 5,174 first-time foreign job-seekers received the labour permits, while 7,289 received approval under the government-to-government (G2G) initiative in the review period.

As per the DoFE data, 20,339 people received re-entry approval for Malaysia, 12,704 for Qatar, 9,770 for UAE and 10,576 for UAE over the same month.

With this, a total of 478,830 people received re-entry permits for foreign employment, while 311,291 people have been approved for foreign employment without re entry over the past seven months of the fiscal year, as per the DoFE data.

Similarly, a total of 38,849 fresh foreign job-seekers have received labour approval, while 7,289 people received labour approval under G2G initiatives in the same period.

Likewise, a total of 182,850 people have received approval for foreign employment in Malaysia over the past seven months of the current fiscal year. Similarly, 79,169 people have received approval for work in Qatar, 64,908 in UAE and 64,849 in Saudi Arabia over the same period.

According to Nepal Rastra Bank, remittance inflows increased 24.3 per cent to Rs 585.08 billion in the first six months of the current fiscal year against a decrease of five per cent in the corresponding period of the previous year. In the US dollar terms, remittance inflows increased 13.9 per cent to $4.50 billion in the review period against a decrease of 5.7 per cent in the same period of the previous year.

Likewise, the number of Nepali workers (institutional and individual-new) taking approval for foreign employment increased 64.6 per cent to 275,643 in the review period. The number of Nepali workers (renew entry) taking approval for foreign employment increased 9.5 per cent to 142,548 in the review period. It had soared by 298.1 per cent in the same period of the previous year.

Meanwhile, the DoFE has halted the labour approval for foreign employment in the positions of motorcycle riders and taxi drivers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar.

Issuing a notice, the DoFE has stated that the decision was made after receiving complaints from Nepali migrant workers in the respective foreign countries of being deprived of salaries and other facilities as per the their contract.

The Nepali embassies in Qatar and the UAE have been also informed about the matter and the decision will be implemented till further notice, according to the DoFE.

A version of this article appears in the print on February 23, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.