Web-based database of foreign workers to be kept

KATHMANDU, AUG 28 -The government is preparing to maintain a web-based database of foreign workers in the country. The move is targeted at keeping up-to-date records of non-Nepalis working in various sectors besides discouraging illegal hiring.

The Department of Labour has forwarded a proposal to the National Planning Commission (NPC) for approval. The department said that the planned system would help maintain records of foreigners coming to Nepal for work and those who have left after finishing their terms.

“The NPC is quite positive about our plan,” said Man Bahadur BK, director general of the department and coordinator of the Non-Nepali Employees Monitoring Committee. Once this provision comes into effect, the Department of Labour will maintain a database of foreign workers and publish it on the department’s website regularly. BK said that they were planning to update the data on workers obtaining an employment permit on a daily basis on the website with the numbers of the employees and the sector where they work.


Currently, there is no exact data on how many foreigners are working in Nepal legally or illegally. The department estimates that there are some 50,000 non-Nepalis working in the country illegally and only 7,000-8,000 workers have received permits as per the Labour Act.

For the last two months, the department has been working to discourage private firms, NGOs, INGOs, projects and diplomatic missions from hiring non-Nepali workers without an employment permit from the government. The department said that the trend of obtaining work permits as per the Labour Act had increased in the last two months. BK said that the department used to issue hardly 500 employment permits annually to foreigners wanting to work in Nepal. “During the period mid-June to mid-July 2011, various organisations have obtained employment permits for 300 individuals,” he added.

Non-Nepali workers are hired in the hydropower, education, telecom, banking and hospitality sectors, among others. However, many firms hiring foreigners have not obtained employment permits for lack of strong implementation of the Labour Act and effective coordination among the concerned ministries such as Finance, Home Affairs and Women, Children and Social Welfare.

A source at the Ministry of Labour and Transport Management said that the initiative to control hiring of foreign workers without an employment permit had been started with the special interest of Labour Minister Mohammad Ishtiyak Rai.