Minister of State for Labor and Transport Management Ramesh Lekhak met with Indian Minister of State for Labour and Employment Oscar Fernandes and Qatari Minister of Civil Service Affairs and Housing of Qatar Al-Dosari Sultan Bin Hassan Al-Dhabit on the sidelines of the 96th International Labour Conference on Monday.

Minister of State for Labor and Transport Management Ramesh Lekhak

Minister of State for Labor and Transport Management Ramesh Lekhak (File Photo)
According to the Permanent Mission of Nepal to the United Nations, Geneva, in the meeting between state ministers Lekhak and Fernandes, views were exchanged on the areas of labour and employment, migrant workers and their skill development.

The talks focused on streamlining the process of safeguarding interests and welfare of Nepalese migrant workers. Mentioning the instances of unscrupulous agents using Indian ports to fly Nepalese migrant workers without going through proper approval process from the Government of Nepal, state minister Lekhak asked for a meeting at the expert level to identify the nature of the problem so that appropriate measures may be devised to control such occurrences.

The Indian state minister Fernandes expressed his readiness to sit and identify the problem and invited the Nepalese delegation for a visit to India on this matter. Minister Fernandez also expressed the willingness of the Government of India to cooperate with Nepal in the areas of skill development and certification of skills of the potential migrant workers based on their experience.

Similarly, in the meeting with Minister of Civil Service Affairs and Housing of Qatar Al-Dosari Sultan Bin Hassan Al-Dhabit, the two Ministers discussed on the possibilities of enhancing cooperation to further strengthen migrant workers regime between the two countries. Minister Lekhak appreciated the Government of Qatar for accepting increasing number of semi-skilled and unskilled labour from Nepal and expressed hope that this trend will continue in the future as well. With a MOU between the two countries already in place, Minister Lekhak requested for the conclusion of a detailed protocol would help to the implementation of the provisions of MOU.

Minister Lekhak also asked the Qatari Minister to allow more Nepalese skilled and educated workers as well as semi-skilled work force in the security services, airlines and service industries. He flagged some incidences of exploitation of the workers by middlemen and called for combined efforts to control such activities.

In reply, Qatari Minister assured that his government would extend the best possible cooperation to facilitate recruitment of Nepalese workers. Outlining that Qatar has allowed accepting highly skilled Nepalese workers, he stated that Qatar is ready to conclude a protocol to the MOU once they receive comments from the Nepalese side to the draft Protocol and invited Minister Lekhak to visit Doha for signing of Protocol after summer.

The Qatari Minister also expressed his readiness to cooperate in controlling excessive fees levied by the middlemen and agents. He also expressed that the Ministry of Labour and Department of Labour in Qatar would extend every possible cooperation to resolve and dispute and problems faced by workers in Qatar according to the local labour laws.

Accepting the invitation of the Qatari Minister to visit Doha, Minister Lekhak reciprocated by extending an invitation to the Qatari Minister for a visit to Nepal at a convenient time.

Acting Secretary at the Ministry of Labour and Transport Management, Shyam Prasad Mainali and an official from the Permanent Mission of Nepal to the United Nations office in Geneva were also present during the meetings.