Over 317,000 left for foreign employment in five months

KATHMANDU: Over 317,000 Nepali workers left for foreign employment in the first five months of fiscal year 2024/25.

According to Loknath Bhusal, director of the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE), a record 83,933 youths left for 96 countries for employment in the fifth month, or Mangsir (mid-November to mid-December), alone.

Bhusal said that the number of workers obtaining re-entry approval is higher than those seeking new approval in Mangsir.”This is because many workers, who returned home for Dahshain, Tihar and Chhath festivals, have returned to foreign job destinations,” he added.

A total of 70,500 male and 13,433 female workers left for foreign employment in Mangsir – about 12,000 higher than Kartik (mid-October to mid-November).

According to DoFE, 55,575 individuals left for foreign employment in Shrawan (mid-July to mid-August), 50,884 in Bhadra (mid-August to mid-September), 56,234 in Ashwin (mid-September to mid-October) and 70,990 in Kartik (mid-October to mid-November). Over 85% of them left for Gulf countries.

A total of 278,000 youths had left for foreign employment in the first five months of 2023/24.

Data maintained by the DoFE shows 771,327 Nepali youths obtained labor permits for foreign employment in 2023/24. In 2022/23, the number stood at 630,090. The DoFE expects the number to cross 800,000 in the current fiscal year.

Meanwhile, Nepal received Rs 521.63 billion in remittances over the first five months of 2024/25 – a 9.1% growth compared to the same period of the previous fiscal year. This is a slower growth compared to last year. In the first quarter of 2023/24, remittance inflows had grown by 22.5%.

About 70% of remittances come from countries like Malaysia, Saudia Arabia, UAE and Qatar, according to Surya Bahadur Khatri, the director general of DoFE, said.