Nepal prepares to sign labour agreement with Turkey

The Nepali government is preparing to send a draft proposal to Turkey in its bid to sign a labour agreement. The agreement will enable Nepal to supply workforce to Turkey.

This comes after Turkey showed interest in taking Nepali workers, at a meeting held in Geneva in June. The meeting that took place between officials of labour ministries of the two countries had agreed to sign an MoU soon.

The Ministry for Labour, Employment and Social Security is now preparing the final draft proposal to be sent to the Turkish Labour Ministry.

Umesh Dhungana, Joint Secretary at Foreign Employment Division of the Ministry, said that Turkey had shown keen interest and was willing to take Nepali workers. He added that more talks were going to be held before anything would be finalised.

Dhungana added that there were a lot of opportunities for Nepalis in Turkey and that the ministry was looking forward to drafting the proposal which would be beneficial for the workers.

In the past, Nepal signed a labour agreement with Malaysia, Japan, UAE, Korea and Mauritius.

The government is making sure that free visa and airfare, health insurance and good working condition will be provided to all Nepalis looking to work in Turkey. He added that all the above conditions had been made mandatory in all the MoUs the ministry had signed in recent times.

Ram Prasad Ghimire, Joint Secretary at the Ministry, said Nepal would only be signing labour agreements with countries which agreed to these terms and conditions.

The government is also making sure that international labour law is followed while drafting the proposal. “We want to create an environment which will help workers. We want to manage the process to send the workers and ensure they are safe in the country they are going to,” he added.

The government has been signing the agreements to curb down fraudulent activities being carried out by employment agencies. The Ministry states that the MoU will ensure that the workers will not have a financial burden and will make sure that the employment process is transparent. Overtime pay and sick leaves have also been given utmost importance in the MOU.