Nearly 76,000 Nepalese arrived for employment in Qatar until November 30 this year, according to the Nepal’s ambassador to Qatar.
Suryanath Mishra yesterday said as in the previous year, Qatar turned out to be the “most preferred” destination for jobs in 2008 as well.
The number of Nepalese workers shot up following the signing of a labour protocol between the Himalayan country and Qatar in January this year, said Mishra.
Expressing the hope that the global economic slowdown would not have any major negative impact on the country’s economy as is being stressed by Qatar’s administrators, Mishra said he was hopeful that 2009 would also turn out to be an impressive year for the Nepalese expatriates.
Stressing that his country was not against sending women for employment in Qatar, the envoy, however, added that they would be cleared only for what he described as jobs in organised sectors. “Even for the organised sectors, we would entertain visa requests for women workers only after inspecting the accommodation facilities of potential employers,” said the ambassador.
Mishra said the mission has received requests for women employees from hospitals and hotels.
The ambassador said nearly 80% of the Nepalese expatriates are unskilled while 15% are semi-skilled workers. The remaining 5% are either skilled or professionals, he added.
The ambassador said even though Malaysia was earlier the largest employment provider to Nepalese expatriates, these days very few seek employment there. “In the past few years, Qatar has been the single largest employment provider to Nepalese and this year’s figures reiterated the employers’ faith in their abilities,” he said.
As of now, it is estimated that at least 300,000 Nepalese are working in Qatar, said Mishra. “The migration to Qatar has grown notably since 2002. Earlier, Saudi Arabia was the single largest job provider for Nepalese workers in the region,” he said.
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