Former Labor Minister DP Aryal (left) and Incumbent Labor Minister Sharat Singh Bhandari.
KATHMANDU: Nepal has failed to send workers to Germany despite signing a labor agreement with the central European nation.
Nepal and Germany signed a Joint Declaration of Intent (JDoI) on skilled labor migration and knowledge exchange in September last year. Although it has already been 10 months since the agreement was signed, the Ministry of Labor, Employment, and Social Security has not initiated the process of sending workers to Germany.
Germany has been urging the ministry to send Nepali workers in sectors like information technology, industry, health, tourism, and agriculture. According to a high-ranking official at the ministry, the German government has corresponded with the labor ministry at least three times since the labor agreement was signed. The ministry has not responded to those letters, which are reportedly piling up on the minister’s desk.
“The labor ministers don’t seem much interested in sending workers to Germany,” the official told Himal Press.
German Ambassador to Nepal, Thomas Prinz, had urged then-Labor Ministers Sharat Singh Bhandari and Dol Prasad Aryal to start the process of sending workers as per the JDoI.
Ministry officials claim that former Labor Minister Dol Prasad Aryal showed little interest in sending workers to European countries. He reportedly did not take the initiative in sending Nepali workers to Germany and Romania.
During his previous tenure as Labor Minister, Bhandari had attempted to assign the responsibility of sending workers to Germany to manpower companies. However, he backed down after then-Labor Secretary Kewal Prasad Bhandari argued against it, citing the government-to-government nature of the labor agreement.
Bhandari was preparing to assign 24 manpower companies to send workers to Germany. But he had to stop the plan after then-Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal showed concern for the plan, an official of the ministry said.
Nepal had agreed to send workers to Germany within three months of the signing of JDoI. As per the understanding between the two countries, German employers had to provide skill training to Nepali workers before employing them.
Bhandari, who began his new term in the labor ministry about a fortnight ago, claimed that preparations were underway to send workers to Germany as per the agreement.
When asked about the accusations that Labor Ministers are reluctant to send workers to Germany, Bhandari responded, “I don’t know what others did, but I initiated the work to send workers to developed countries, including Europe, during my previous tenure as Labor Minister.” He added that he would take needful steps to send workers to Romania and Germany.
Govind Prasad Rijal, spokesperson for the labor ministry, said that discussions are ongoing regarding sending trainee workers to Germany. “We have prepared a draft of the standards for sending workers to Germany for their feedback,” Rijal said. “We will start sending workers once we hear back from them,” he added.
Nepal has been sending workers to Romania through manpower companies.
A total of 107 Nepali workers received labor approval for Germany in the previous fiscal year.
