September 28: The foreign employment sector, which was severely affected by Covid-19 pandemic, is slowly returning to normalcy. The number of Nepali workers going for foreign employment had dropped sharply after the outbreak of Covid-19. However, this number has been increasing recently.

The data from the Department of Foreign Employment shows that the number of workers going for foreign employment has been increasing since July. While 20,658 Nepalis went for foreign employment during last July, data shows that 25,428 people went for foreign employment in July and 36,040 in August this year.

Statistics from the department have shown that more than 30,000 workers go for foreign employment from Nepal every month under normal circumstances. Only 4,086 Nepalis had gone for foreign employment in May.

The number of workers going for foreign employment had dropped sharply after the outbreak of the pandemic in Nepal. The government had even postponed the approval of labor permit in March 2020. Even though the work permit was resumed from June 2020, only a negligible number of Nepali workers had been going abroad.

The number of foreign workers had declined due to the global restriction to curb the spread of virus, the economic crisis in the destination countries, and the impact of the pandemic on the employer companies. “Nevertheless, this sector is flourishing now and soon this sector will return back to normal and move forward,” said Sujit Shrestha, general secretary of the Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies.

He added that 1,200 Nepalis have been going abroad for foreign employment on a daily basis at present.

Lately, the demand for workers has been increasing significantly. The workers going for foreign employment have also been vaccinated against coronavirus with priority. As the labor-intensive countries are opening up, the number of workers going for foreign employment is increasing, says Shrestha.

The increase in the number of workers going for foreign employment will also help the economy. Stakeholders say that, Nepal’s economy, which is still dependent on remittances, will also increase as the number of workers going abroad has gone up.