More than 740,000 migrant workers received government permits for foreign jobs as of Sunday, with less than 15 days left for the fiscal year 2022/23 to complete.
The records with the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE) show the number this year was the record high till date. The figure of around 11 months and a half is more than that of the entire fiscal year 2021/22 by around 100,000 people. According to the department, in the last fiscal year, over 630,000 people received work permits for foreign employment.
The DoFE records show that 2,044 individuals left the country on a daily basis looking for jobs abroad. In 2000/2001, only 50,000 people went abroad in search of employment opportunities amid global lockdowns imposed to curb Covid-19 pandemic.
The attraction of Nepalis towards foreign employment was found to increase mainly after the emergence of the Maoist insurgency. During the 18 years between the fiscal years 1994/95 and 2012/13, a total of 2.465 million migrant workers took government approval for foreign jobs.
In the successive years, around 300,000—400,000 people annually left for foreign jobs. The number, however, skyrocketed after the 2015 earthquake. In 2016/17, a total of 642,859 people received government permits.
The number fell significantly in 2019/20 due to the impacts of coronavirus. In the year, only 166,698 people went for foreign employment.
Nepal Rastra Bank’s statistics shows Malaysia is one of the main labor destination countries for Nepali migrant workers. Likewise, the attraction is growing also for European countries including Romania, Croatia, Cyprus and the UK.
According to experts, a large number of people enter European countries, the United States, Japan, South Korea, Australia, the UAE on visit visas, and start working illegally, claim refugee status or begin to work on working visas.
