Kathmandu, January 24

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal today said efforts were being made to recommend ambassadors for all vacant diplomatic outposts in the next Cabinet meeting, which is likely to be held on Thursday.

Responding to a media query regarding the long overdue process of naming envoys to a dozen vacant embassies, Dahal said all concerned parties were coming to a conclusion on filling vacant missions before long.

“Consultation is underway to appoint envoys to all vacant missions in the next cabinet meeting,” he said during a press conference at his official residence in Baluwatar. “We are close to conclusion.”

He further said new embassies and consulate offices would be opened gradually in countries where Nepalis are concentrated.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nepali embassies in Australia, Japan, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Denmark are currently without a chief.

Ambassadorial posts of some of these missions have been vacant for months and even years. For example, Nepali Embassy in Doha, Qatar has been headless since September 2013, when the government had recalled then Ambassador Maya Kumar Sharma following her controversial remarks about the treatment of migrant workers in the Gulf state. Keeping diplomatic outposts headless for long has been ‘damaging’ for the country.

Meanwhile, PM Dahal alleged that many Nepali migrant workers are facing problems in destination countries like Malaysia and the Gulf states, primarily not because they are in alien lands, but because of fellow Nepalis — these include manpower agencies, Nepali bureaucrats and immigration officials.

He stated that his government was trying to bust all illegal networks and settings of manpower agencies, bureaucrats, police and immigration officials to ensure safe and transparent job migration.