MoFA asked to monitor Nepali missions abroad

Kathmandu, July 27: International Relations and Labour Committee of the Legislature-Parliament Thursday directed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) to monitor the Nepali embassies, ambassadors and missions abroad to ensure they were working as per the guidelines and in the national interest.

Committee chairman Juth Bahadur Khadgi (JB Tuhure) also asked the government to organise a ‘Foreign Employment Summit’ to find solutions to the problems of Nepali workers in the foreign land.

“This committee directs the government and the Ministry of Labour and Employment (MoLE) to invite all embassies and missions as well as Gulf countries’ representatives and hold an employment conference,” read the decision of the committee.

Speaking at the meeting of the committee, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara said that the MoFA was mulling the summit so that the government could find ways to resolve the issues of the Nepali labourers in the Gulf countries and Malaysia at the earliest.

“We are planning to hold the conference of Nepali diplomatic missions and labour attaches. In addition to it, the MoFA is in favour of developing a coordination mechanism among all Nepali missions in the Gulf,” he said.

The committee directed the MoLE, MoFA, Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) and Ministry of Finance (MoH) to develop integrated software that allows the concerned ministries to feed and acquire data when necessary.

“The government should keep the details of Nepali workers working in the Gulf and other countries,” said Khadgi.

The house panel asked the MoHA to initiate a study in order to make Nepal a party of UN Protocol.

The protocol, a supplement of the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, supports the country to prevent, supress and punish trafficking in persons especially women and children.

The Protocol was adopted and opened for signature, ratification and accession on November 15, 2000 but Nepal has not signed it yet.

The committee also asked the government to allow Nepali workers go to only to those countries with whom Nepal had signed bilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

Concerned ministries expressed commitment to increase cooperation and coordination among them.

DPM Mahara said that a joint mechanism of MoFA, MoHA, MoLE and MoF was created and it would resolve the issues through dialogue.

Home Minister Janardan Sharma Pravakar and Minister for Labour and Employment Farmullah Mansoor were also present in the meeting.

Foreign secretary Shankar Das Bairagi pointed towards the necessity for the amendment of the Labour Act.