Nepal-Qatar Technical Committee meet scheduled for Wednesday

AFTER several postponements, Nepal and Qatar have finally decided to hold a meeting of the Technical Committee. Scheduled for June 26 in Qatar, the joint secretary-level meeting is aimed at revising the existing labour agreement to adopt the changing dynamics of foreign employment. The two countries have never sat for such talks after 2005. “The Technical Committee meeting has been envisioned in the Labour Agreement between the two countries. The meeting is meant to revise and amend the provisions that are outdated or against the welfare of workers,” Divash Acharya, spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE), told the Post. Acharya said the meeting was postponed for a few times due to “some technical problems”. Nepal’s ambassador to Qatar Maya Kumari Sharma said both the sides will put forward problems they have witnessed in the labour sector. “Our side will urge the Qatari side to revise the existing laws to pave the way for recruitment of skilled and highly skilled manpower, issues related to women workers, exchange of information between the two countries, and other areas of workers’ welfare,” said Sharma. Sharma said the Nepali side will also seek amnesty to illegal workers, access of information about the workers languishing in the deportation centre, and problems the workers are facing in acquiring the exit papers. The Ministry of Labour and Employment has formed a threemember Nepali delegation headed by Buddhi Bahadur Khadka, chief of the ministry’s Foreign Employment Division. The meeting will also be attended by Binod KC, Director General of the Department of Foreign Employment, and a representative from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Ambassador Sharma said the meeting will focus on nine agendas, including the security of Nepali migrants in Qatar. “The countries have not been able to sit for the talks since 2005. Except for a few new agendas, most of the agendas will primarily be the ones fixed in 2010 when the meeting failed to take place,” said Sharma. According to a monthly report of the department, Qatar is the second biggest destination after Malaysia for Nepali migrant workers, with an estimated 400,000 Nepalis working there. Nepalis in Qatar have repeatedly asked the government to revise the labour agreement to meet the changing dimension of foreign employment.