DOHA: Qatar and Nepal have plans to set up an electronic link to share information on Nepali workers to ensure instant communication between the two sides.
The Nepali media yesterday reported that the labour ministries of the two countries agreed to establish an online link for the above purpose.
Qatar has urged Nepal to send two IT experts to study possible ways “to keep workers’ documents” to be shared between the two countries online, myrepublica.com reports.
Kathmandu has said it will communicate on the issue at the earliest, said the online newspaper. The two countries agreed to strictly monitor the recruitment process and blacklist those agencies that charge additional amounts.
A press statement was issued by Nepal’s labour and employment ministry said that Qatar has reiterated its resolve to ensure safety and security and welfare of migrant workers, myrepublica.com said.
“The Qatari delegation has also informed about a recent amendment made to the labor law to address the issue of migrant workers.” At meetings between the two labour ministers and their delegations, Nepal urged Qatar to recruit more of its skilled manpower.
It seems the issue of runaway Nepali workers also came up for a discussion between the two sides, with Kathmandu requesting that “undocumented” Nepali workers be regularised and their sponsorship be changed.
Myrepublica.com said that not only the issue of manpower agencies charging money illegally from Qatar-bound Nepali workers was raised at the meetings but also the question of unscrupulous middlemen involved in the recruitment process so that recruitment is ensured at zero cost.
The Qatari side has reiterated that agencies and individuals who don’t abide by the country’s law will be prosecuted. “Any activities which are against the labour law will not be tolerated,” said Qatar.
Meanwhile, Qatar’s Minister of Labour and Social Affairs H E Abdullah Saleh Mubarak Al Khulaifi, who was on a four-day visit of the Himalayan nation with a delegation of senior officials, left for Doha yesterday, myrepublica.com reports. He has invited Nepal’s Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Tek Bahadur Gurung and he has accepted the invitation, myrepublica.com added.
The Peninsula
