KATHMANDU: The Ministry of Labour and Transport Management (MoLTM) has proposed Amal Kiran Dahal, Prakash Mohan Joshi, Parbati Aryal and Hira Devi Paudel as labour attachés for four major destination countries — Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar — respectively.

These appointments are in the final stage, said ministry spokesperson Hari Dutta Pandey adding that the ministry got approval from Ministry of General Administration (MoGA). “We have written a letter to Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) for the deputation of labour attachés in Nepal’s foreign missions aboard,” he added.

The new appointees, Dahal and Joshi, are class II officers in the Department of Labour and Employment Permit System (EPS) respectively while the other two women officers — Aryal and Poudel — are section officers at MoLTM. “They will work under the direct command of the ambassadors of their respective missions,” he said.

Nepali migrant labours

in destination countries — Malaysia, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Israel — have been facing various problems and diplomatic missions have been reluctant to solve the problems due to shortage of human resources.

Around 1.2 million Nepalis are working in those four countries. Malaysia alone houses 3,00,000 Nepali blue-collar jobseekers and while the remaining 9,00,000 are in three Gulf countries — the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

“We are planning to appoint a labour attaché in Israel in the next phase,” he said. The MoLTM has set to appoint six labour attachés last year including Israel and South Korea. Israel is a popular destination of Nepali women about 10,000 women have been working there as care-givers. According to Israel’s Interior Ministry, violation of work permit rules is rampant. The Ministry of Finance (MoF) recently sanctioned Rs 2.5 million for the deputation of labour attachés. Earlier, the Foreign Employment Promotion Board (FEPB) had provided $2000 seed money to Nepalese embassies in those countries to protect the rights of Nepali labours working there.

According to the Foreign Employment Act 2007, the government should appoint labour attachés wherever the number of Nepali men workers exceeds 5,000 and women worker exceeds 1,000.

As per the act, the labour attachés will handle and coordinate cases related to labourers and protect the rights of migrant workers.