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South Korea has announced that it will take 40,000 Nepali workers within the next one year under the Employment Permit System (EPS).
Korea’s Deputy Minister of Labor and Employment, Park Jongpil, informed about this to the Secretary of Labor, Employment and Social Security, Ek Narayan Aryal.
“We will bring 40,000 Nepalis from Nepal to the construction, production and agriculture sectors within one year,” said Aryal, quoting Deputy Minister Jongpil’s statement at the bilateral meeting in Singapore. Earlier, Korea had never recruited so many Nepalis under EPS in one year.
Vice Minister Jongpil led the Korean delegation and came to Singapore to participate in the 17th Asia and Pacific Regional Meeting of the International Labor Organization (ILO).
Labor Secretary Aryal led the meeting on behalf of Nepal. At the same time, a meeting was held between the officials of both the countries. During the meeting, Deputy Minister Jongpil said that among the 16 countries that Korea has been supplying workers to, Nepali is given the highest priority, according to Secretary Aryal. It has been 12 years since we started sending workers under EPS. During this period, the mechanism between Korea and Nepal is functioning effectively.
“Nepal has the mechanism to send workers as per Korea’s demand, we assured the Korean side in the meeting that they are ready for that,” Aryal said.
Korea allocated the highest quota of 9,000 workers last year. Under the EPS system, 75,000 Nepali workers have reached Korea so far.
In which there are 5 thousand women. Aryal said that Minister Jongpil also mentioned that 3,000 Nepalis who went to Korea are living in illegal status. It is our desire that no one stays in Korea illegally. Aryal said, quoting Jongpil’s statement, that Nepal should also facilitate the return of those living in illegal status.
Aryal said that it is necessary to revise the labor agreement between Nepal and Korea. In the said agreement, there is no arrangement to hold a technical committee meeting between the two countries to resolve the difficulties in labor matters.
Sectoral identification has not been made to take Nepalese workers to professional positions. He said that there was a problem in sending him to a higher level even though the company would take him to a higher level because there was no arrangement to take him to a professional position.
He said that he also requested the Deputy Minister to arrange social security for Nepali workers working in Korea.
“During the meeting, the Korean side was informed that Nepal has made a policy arrangement to bring workers who have gone abroad for employment under the social security fund based on contributions,” he said, adding that even the bodies of workers who died in Korea have to be brought to Nepal at its own expense.
Apart from that, it has been requested to make it easier for Korean banks to send money to their own or family’s accounts in Nepal. As Hundi transactions are a big problem in Korea, the government of Nepal wants to make it possible for Nepali workers to send money to their home country through bank accounts.
