• Additional resources sought through supplementary budget to rescue stranded migrant workers

Kathmandu, December 8

The Foreign Employment Promotion Board (FEPB) is seeking enough resources from the government to develop a strong mechanism to rescue migrant workers in distress.

Informing that there are thousands of such migrant workers in different labour destination countries, FEPB has urged the government to provide ample resources so that their rescue and rehabilitation is possible.

Similarly, FEPB has also said that a separate policy should be introduced by the government to rescue illegal migrant workers who have overstayed their visa term in labour destinations, are trafficked or are stranded due to any other causes.

Such remark from FEPB comes at a time when Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, during his address to the nation on September 8, had said that the government would enhance rescue management system for migrant workers and the ruling Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist Centre is planning to introduce supplementary budget.

“There are thousands of migrant workers who have either been trafficked or are staying in the destination countries illegally and need to be rescued,” said FEPB Executive Director Raghuraj Kaphle, adding that the government should introduce policies in the budget and allocate enough resources to rescue such illegal migrants.

While FEPB has currently been rescuing only legal migrant workers in distress, the government’s rescue system has been criticised time and again for being inefficient.

Kaphle proposed the government to set up a separate fund to rescue illegal migrant workers through the budget. “A separate fund of Rs 100 million under the Ministry of Labour and Employment has to be set up and sufficient human resources need to be added to rescue such migrant workers,” he said.

FEPB has also urged the government to introduce a mandatory provision for migrant workers to take skill training before going to different labour destinations. Following such provision, Kaphle said that there is a strong need to set up branch offices of FEPB in major cities of the country, equipped with sufficient human resources. This will help disseminate information, facts and figures of destination countries to potential migrant workers and offer them relevant skills and training, according to Kaphle.

Similarly, FEPB officials said that the supplementary budget should introduce schemes that would encourage remittance flow through legal money transfer and discourage hundi operations.