Number of foreigners seeking labour permits up

Kathmandu / May 8: The number of foreign nationals entering Nepal for employment opportunities has started increasing again with the subsiding of the coronavirus crisis.

According to the Department of Labour and Occupation Safety, 771 foreigners have got labour permits in the first nine months of the current fiscal year (FY). In the same period of the previous FY of 2020/21, 676 foreigners had taken the labour permit.

According to the department, the number of those seeking renewal of the labour permit has decreased, however. Against 977 who sought permit renewal in the same period of the last FY, only 815 have renewed the labour permit in the nine months of the current FY.

The number of foreigners entering Nepal in search of job opportunities was good in the previous two FYs despite the coronavirus crisis. The number of foreigners who took labour permits and renewable was 2,050 in the FY 2019/20 and the number was 2,390 in the FY 2020/21, according to the Department of Labour and Occupation Safety.

Uma Kant Acharya, Director General of the Department of Labour and Occupation Safety, informed that the number of people seeking labour permits and their renewal rose as the mega projects in Nepal began to restart after the COVID crisis seemed over.

He said that the number of foreigners seeking labour permits may have increased due to the presence of a large number of Chinese citizens in big projects in Nepal.

He informed that technicians working on the projects that are run for 5 to 7 years renew their labour permits and that 90 per cent of foreigners employed in Nepal are highly efficient in technology.

Development partners and international non-governmental organisations including Word Health Organisation and Save the Children also take labour permits for a small number of experts.

As per the statistics revealed by the Department, of the number of foreign nationals of 96 countries who have taken labour permits, the Chinese are the largest in number.

A total of 20,000 foreigners have taken labour permits or renewed that in the period from 2014 to date.

Of the total human resource, only five per cent of foreign nationals can be kept in an enterprise operating in the country, according to the Labour Act.

Most foreigners are employed in the offices set up with foreign investments such as the international airlines companies, electronic companies, drinking water, tunnel and Hydropower companies. High technological human resources are employed even in Nepal Airlines including the Rasuwagadhi, Trishuli, Madhya Bhotekoshi, Kabeli, Doha Engineering Company, Huawei Technology and Himalayan Airlines.