Kuwait to provide jobs for additional 200,000 Nepalis

By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, June 27: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Narayan Kaji Shrestha has said that an understanding has been made with Kuwait to employ additional 200,000 Nepalis there.

DPM Shrestha said so at a press meet held on Tuesday upon his arrival at the Tribhuvan International Airport after taking part in the 19th Ministerial Meeting of the Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) held in Tehran, the Islamic Republic of Iran. DPM Shrestha had a bilateral meeting with Abdullah Ali Al-Yahya, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Kuwait, on the sidelines of the ACD meeting.

“During my meeting with the Foreign Affairs Minister of Kuwait, an understanding has been made to increase the number of Nepali migrant workers to 300,000 from the existing 100,000 and open the Embassy of Kuwait in Kathmandu,” said DPM Shrestha.

He also highlighted that Russia has agreed to return Nepalis working in the Russian army and that the process would begin after finalising the modality. DPM Shrestha had a bilateral meeting with Andrei Rudenko, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, on the sidelines of the ACD Ministerial meeting.

“During the meeting, I raised particularly five issues, including the creation of an environment to return the Nepali nationals who joined the Russian Army, bodies of those killed,  information about the number of Nepalis working in the Russian army, treatment and compensation to the wounded and returning all those Nepalis working in the Russian army by scraping any contract they have made and giving priority to six Nepali nationals held in Ukraine while working in the Russian army during the exchange of prisoners of war (PoW) with Ukraine,” said DPM and Foreign Minister Shrestha.

In response, Russian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Rudenko said that Russia was ready to return the bodies of the dead and also those working in the army, but a modality had to be finalised in this regard. He also said that a process was initiated to provide compensation to Nepalis who died while working in the Russian army.

In his telephone conversation a few weeks back with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, DPM and Foreign Minister Shrestha had asked the latter to provide compensation to those who died while working in the Russian army and send back all Nepalis working in the army.