Visiting Nepalese labour minister Lek Raj Bhatta has warned that the government in Nepal is initiating strict action against Nepalese nationals, in particular manpower agents, who are “making the lives of their compatriots abroad miserable”.
The minister was briefing journalists on action being initiated by the nation’s government against several manpower agencies in that country over the last few months.
Bhatta said the government has cancelled the registration and licenses of 126 agencies followings complaints. Huge fines have also been imposed for violating recruitment rules, he said.
“If the government received complaints against manpower agencies run by Nepalese abroad, we will act immediately,” said Bhatta.
Yesterday, on the basis of the complaints received from the Nepalese embassy, the minister promised to initiate steps to cancel the passport of a Nepalese manpower agent in Doha. The agent was in the news recently after workers he recruited for companies in Qatar were left stranded in the country for several months. Last month, the Nepal foreign minister who was on a visit had recommended deporting of the agent to Nepal.
Most of the 40 stranded workers had to turn to the community for repatriation. The minister also met yesterday the last member of the group, who is still in Qatar. He promised to repatriate him at the earliest.
Bhatta said: “Qatar is now the most sought after destination for people from Nepal.” He felt that Qatar has not been hit heavily by the global economic slowdown. “The figures available with us suggest that in January this year, Qatar received almost the same number of Nepalese workers as it received during the same month last year,” he said.
The government has approved of 112,000 visas for Nepalese nationals, he added.
The minister said more than 600 people leave Nepal daily to take up jobs abroad. “Qatar and Saudi Arabia receive the highest numbers,” he said. “ Our country is in a transitional phase and ours is a remittance-based economy, the minister added. “No other country is providing as many jobs to Nepalese expatriates as Qatar does,” said Bhatta.
The minister said there are 300,000 Nepalese expatriates in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. UAE (125,000), Bahrain (45,000) and Kuwait (50,000) too have large Nepalese populations, he said.
“There used to be around 400,000 Nepalese workers in Malaysia. However, now numbers in that country are falling drastically,” he said.
Nepalese ambassador Dy Suryanath Mishra, who was also present at the meeting, said of the 86,000 Nepalese workers who had arrived in Qatar, only 44,000 had valid visa attestations.
He said the embassy was planning to promote travel to Nepal in a large way in coming months.
“Not many locals in Qatar seem to be aware that Nepal is an extremely beautiful country,” he said. The envoy said as in the previous year, a Nepalese cultural festival is planned in Qatar this year as well.
The ambassador said though a considerably large number of European tourists living in this region travel to Nepal, not many Arabs are among the visitors.
Later speaking at a community meet Bhatta appealed to his countrymen to respect Qatar’s labour laws. He strongly discouraged strikes by Nepalese living abroad. He said strikes would tarnish the image of Nepalese workers.
“If there is a dispute, workers should bring the issue to the attention of the embassy, if required and should also listen to what the labour court says,” he said.
The minister said community forum representatives have a major role in instilling discipline among workers groups. “They should tell workers to obey the labour law of the country where they work and not to resort to anything that would bring a bad image to the Nepalese community,” he said.
The minister said he had held some “fruitful” discussions with Qatar minister for labour HE Dr Sultan bin Hassan al-Dhabit al-Dousari on Sunday.
Gulf Times
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