Himal Press 
This undated photo shows migrant workers boarding a Qatar Airlines flights at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu.
Photo Courtesy: Center for the Study of Labor and Mobility
KATHMANDU: A total of 70,933 Nepalis left for foreign employment in the ninth month (mid-March to mid-April) of the current fiscal year.
According to the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE), 33,369 of them left for overseas job destinations through recruitment companies, while the remaining 37,564 left the country through individual and re-entry approvals.
Data compiled by the DoFE shows that 542,143 Nepalis have left for foreign job destinations over the first nine months of 2023/24.
Nepalis received labor permits for 101 countries in the review month. Although the majority of the Nepali workers headed to Gulf nations and Malaysia, among others, few received permission to work in countries like Zambia, South Sudan, Somalia, Fiji, and Ghana, etc.
The UAE continued to be the most popular foreign job destination for Nepali workers as the Gulf nation welcomed 17,818 Nepali workers during the review months, followed by Saudi Arabia with 13,641, Qatar with 11,204, Malaysia with 12,620 and Kuwait with 4,076 workers.
Among European nations, Romania (2,299) welcomed the highest number of Nepalis in the review month, followed by Croatia with 960 and Cyprus with 677. The war-torn Russia welcomed 101 Nepalis in the ninth month of the current fiscal year.
“Gulf nations and Malaysia continued to be the major destinations for Nepali workers in the review month,” said Dandu Raj Ghimire, the director-general of DoFE.
