Profiling Migrant Workers

Nepalis are known far and wide as a hardworking lot. Provided proper leadership and motivation, they can move mountains for the transformation of the country. Unfortunately, that has not been the case so far; political instability and resultant lack of employment has forced millions of Nepali youth to migrate to foreign lands, including the Gulf countries and Malaysia, in search of jobs. Most of them sans employment-oriented education and essential skills are forced to engage in physical labour with low wages. Still the remittances they send home make up roughly one-fourth of the total GDP of the country and keep the economy floating. 

In the last few months, the war between Isreal-United States and Iran exposed the risks in the foreign employment sector. It is estimated that a whopping 1.7 seven million Nepalis live and work in various countries across West Asia, mostly in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. In this context, the new government formed an Inter-Ministerial Task Force to study the impact of the conflict on the workers and the economy back home and recommend measures for the safety and repatriation of Nepalis working in the Middle East. A news report in this daily stated that the Task Force has suggested the government to immediately create ‘digital profiles’ and geolocation mapping data on the workers residing in conflict-affected or high-risk zones. 

The Task Force had been asked to suggest necessary policy and strategy to address the existing and emerging challenges. And it has recommended short-, medium- and long-term measures to usher real change in the foreign employment sector and the absorption of returnee workers. In the short term, it has suggested operating ‘cash-for-work’ to address immediate livelihood issues and undertaking skill mapping of the returning migrant workers and begin skill-employment matching to retain the returnee migrants at home. It has also suggested providing entrepreneurship training and seed capital to those wishing to stay back and be self-employed. Meanwhile, proficiency training and certification about skills in demand in the employment destination is another recommendation of the Task Force. 

In the medium term, it has underscored to set up ‘reintegration fund’ at the local level in the annual plans. There should be provisions of concessional loans without collateral to open business and provide loans to begin startups and small and medium enterprises. It has also called for high level vocational training in the areas of tourism, IT and construction as well as the need to encourage commercial farming. Another recommendation is an arrangement of mentorship and networking. Going beyond that, it has called for soliciting cooperatives to pool small amounts of capital from returnee workers and launch collective investment projects, building returnee migrant hubs in local levels and instituting digital skill bank to facilitate direct contact between workers and employers. 

These are the steps the country required to take long ago to improve foreign employment sector and absorb returnee workers in the domestic economy. However, that did not happen in the last several decades. Successive governments did talk about these things but the migrant workers continued to suffer in absence of desired changes in skills enhancement, certification and recruitment. The incumbent government holds a strong mandate and is expected to take concrete measures to restructure the foreign employment sector so that the workers remain safe in employment destination and enjoy fair treatment and wages. Back home, there should be a mechanism in place to utilise the experiences and skills of the returnees for the advancement of the country.