Record High Number of Nepali Workers Going for Foreign Employment
Kathmandu, 19 Jul: The number of people leaving for foreign employment has reached an all-time high. According to the Department of Foreign Employment, a new record was set in the fiscal year 2081/82 (2024/25), with 839,270 individuals obtaining labor permits.
During a press conference on Friday, the department informed that out of the total, 744,811 were men and 94,455 were women.
Breakdown of Labor Permits:
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Institutional (through foreign employment companies): 359,675
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Renewed labor permits: 333,309
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Individual new labor permits: 133,627
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Workers under government-to-government (G2G) agreements (South Korea, Israel, and the UK): 12,653
Kamal Prasad Bhattarai, Director-General of the department, stated that 60% of the total labor permits were new, while 40% were renewals.
Top 10 Destination Countries for Nepali Workers:
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United Arab Emirates (UAE)
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Saudi Arabia
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Qatar
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Kuwait
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Malaysia
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Romania
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Japan
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South Korea
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Croatia
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Bahrain
On average, 69,939 labor permits were issued monthly, and 2,300 daily in the past fiscal year.
Workers went to 69 countries, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Bahrain, and various European nations, either through institutional or individual channels.
The highest number of labor approvals for foreign employment was recorded in the month of Mangsir of the last fiscal year. According to Director General Bhattarai, out of the total 3,516,965 individuals who received labor approvals for foreign employment over the past five years, the highest number was in fiscal year 2081/82 (2024/25), with over 839,000 approvals. Of those who received labor approval during this period, 3,181,191 were men and 335,774 were women.
Labor Approval in Two Minutes
At a press conference, it was revealed that for the past one to one-and-a-half months, labor approvals have been issued within two minutes of receiving the application.
Director General Bhattarai stated, “If all the required documents are complete, we issue labor approval within two minutes of receiving the application.” He claimed that while two months ago, it used to take about a week to grant labor approval after submission, the department has now significantly improved its processes and is able to provide approval within two minutes.
It was also informed that the department has recently been made free from middlemen.
Director General Bhattarai asserted that the department has successfully stopped intermediaries at the entrance gate who used to obtain labor approvals on behalf of service seekers, in an effort to provide direct and better service to the applicants.
