Foreign employment has become a major area of ​​employment for Nepalese youth. Foreign employment has provided opportunities for nearly three-fourths of young people who enter the labor market every year, and it has taken a place as the backbone of the economy. This sector is not only a foreign exchange earner but also a major contributor to poverty alleviation as well as a leading source of remittances.

The economically active age group population in the country is 61 percent, of which the highly active population in the age group of 16 to 40 years is 42.56 percent. However, due to the lack of employment and the lack of productive employment and decent work, the youth of this age group are going for foreign employment in large numbers. According to the National Census 2078, 23.4 percent of the families have gone to foreign employment. Regarding the average number of families in Nepal is 4.37 million and from the point of view of the households receiving remittances, 56 percent of the households i.e. more than half of the Nepalis are connected with their relatives abroad. 

The Foreign Employment Department, subordinate offices, Foreign Employment Board, Nepali Mission Abroad are directly involved in the management of the foreign employment system, which is such an important sector. Licensed foreign employment professionals, orientation organizations, training providers, health testing organizations, insurance and other partner agencies are also directly associated with this sector. At the policy level, the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security is mainly responsible, while the Ministry of Foreign Affairs remains active as a co-ordinator and facilitator. The Foreign Employment Policy, 2068 has provided policy guidance for foreign employment, while its management and regulation is being done by the Foreign Employment Act, 2064. 

The foreign employment sector is playing an important role in the economy, employment and overall society. Its service delivery can be seen as the standard of good governance in the country. It is the duty of the state to provide a sense of good governance by making service delivery of foreign employment organized, fast and simple. Transparency, public accountability, effectiveness, rule of law and corruption control are considered as basic aspects of good governance. The more good governance can be improved in foreign employment administration, the more it will help to make this sector safe, orderly and dignified.

improvement efforts 

In the reform of foreign employment administration, performance based on electronic information system, decentralization of authority, simplification of performance system and improvement in service delivery are the main points. Labor permits, which were previously available only from Kathmandu, have started flowing from the labor and employment offices of the province since last year. Employment information centers at the local level have been arranged to facilitate labor approval. Immigration Resource Centers located in 38 District Administration Offices are providing information for safe foreign employment before passport production. All foreign employment service providers are affiliated to the Foreign Employment Information System. Linking service delivery with information technology has eliminated long queues for labor approvals. As the employees are also becoming information technology friendly, the performance has become easier.  Decision-making layers are reduced in

service delivery. Especially, again the labor approval is done from one level and the system of working in two shifts has made it very convenient for the service users. Now the work is progressing as per the promise of service in one hour. Some countries have blocked foreign employment operations. The procedure for conciliation and recommendation of complaints of foreign employment fraud, 2080 has been prepared and the work of orientation to the district administration office has started. 

The main problem

The main problem of foreign employment is fraud. Zero cost has become limited to popular slogans. Due to the lack of effective implementation, those who want to go for foreign employment have to pay more money, the licensees can only charge service fees and only issue bills accordingly, so new agents have been created to collect more money. When businessmen collect money through these agents and workers also show fraud to these agents, the number of individual complaints has increased rapidly rather than institutional ones. Such manipulation has made the recruitment process of foreign employment more opaque. Even though all work related to foreign employment is done through the Foreign Employment Information System (FEMIS), service delivery is affected when there is a continuous interruption in this system. Some people even have to lose their flight tickets. 

Policy instability regarding foreign employment remains. There is a lack of data and evidence-based decision-making processes. Thus, policy decisions are not predictable due to rapid decision making. Recently, the latest amendments and changes in the pre-departure orientation training, the decision to make English language mandatory and the procedures for examining and approving foreign employment applications have been cancelled. The implementation of zero costing, the decision on domestic workers is also mired in similar policy instability. Due to policy ambiguity and procedural hassles, the number of people going for foreign employment by adopting visit visa or other alternative measures is increasing day by day. Despite the government's restrictive decision regarding domestic workers, the number of women who informally take risks and go to foreign employment is huge. The network of informal groups involved in this is becoming very strong. 

According to the agreement made during the labor acceptance, there is still a complaint about the difference in salary benefits. This problem has been established as a chronic disease in foreign employment. Due to the difference between the minimum wage determined by Nepal and the actual wage of the destination country, this issue is becoming a constant problem. The process of receiving an orientation certificate despite not attending the training and failing the health test in the destination country despite passing the health test in Nepal has not stopped. The issue of forced labor and human trafficking is also associated with foreign employment. The irony of hundreds of young people who have gone for foreign employment returning to the red box every year continues. The situation of those returning with injuries, amputations and chronic diseases is very bad. 

Due to the lack of effective coordination between travel permit agencies, it is found that people who have received work permits are returned from the airport from time to time. Although there is continuous coordination and cooperation between the Nepali Mission abroad and the Foreign Employment Administration, the issue of verifying the demand of workers has not been solved in some countries. Missions located abroad have limited manpower and are under a lot of pressure to get bogged down in small matters. Due to the continuous change of leadership in the foreign employment department and the office, the reform could not be institutionalized. In the last five years, nine directors have changed in the department. The situation of foreign employment office is no different. As many new destinations are seen, they are expanding mainly due to the efforts and personal initiatives of businessmen. The government is not able to identify and promote relatively attractive destinations. 

In foreign employment administration, the availability of opportunities such as performance orientation for employees, exchange of information with the embassy is very low. There has not been a periodical orientation about the reforms to be done after the international standards and the rules and systems of the destination country have changed. There is also a lack of a system to verify whether the visa received from the destination country is correct or not. The process of granting work permit to high-level service personnel and ordinary laborers in the country and abroad is the same. Which is discouraging to go to foreign employment through visit visa or other process. 

The Foreign Employment Act, 2064, which is the basic law for managing and regulating foreign employment, is difficult to address the current challenges. The constitution includes the rights of workers in the state policy. According to the federal government system, the state level has been established as a new structure of the state, while the role and scope of the local level has been expanded. There has been a wide change in the number, problems and trends of people going to foreign employment. But the centralized framework of Foreign Employment Act, 2064 remains. The offices have to work under the authority delegated by the department. Although the Local Government Operation Act, 2074 has given some responsibility to the local level, the role of the province has not yet been revealed.  Implementation and impact of

labor contracts is very low. Most of the workers are not aware of the benefits they get from it. Old contracts have not been amended in time. The government's approach towards foreign employment has not been clear. Changes in the global environment, wage gaps and availability of opportunities determine the dynamics of labor migration. The constitution has given every person the right to choose the job they want. Rather than the thought of how to make foreign employment voluntary and safe, it is being portrayed as compulsory. Not much attention has been paid to respecting labor, providing occupations and opportunities to the returnees in the country. 

The issue of foreign employment reform does not seem to be a priority in the state's policies and programs and budget. Whether it is to keep local employees in the destination country or the management of resources in the service provider organization, everyone's eyes are directed towards the welfare fund which is the contribution of the workers.  The starting point of

reform 

Simple, fast and reliable service delivery is the starting point of reform for good governance in foreign employment. For this, first of all, the Foreign Employment Information System (FEMIS) should be strengthened and made capable of providing services according to the work pressure. The capacity and security of this system should be audited and the capacity of the server should also be increased. Likewise, government involvement can be reduced in some matters of foreign employment. For example, a person who is engaged in employment abroad and comes to get a work permit may not need orientation, health examination etc. Those who have obtained graduation qualifications and are considered as skilled and highly skilled workers, if they want to go for foreign employment through personal effort, they can arrange self-registration by themselves through the online system.

Transparency in performance is another important aspect of governance. Licensed practitioners should be made more responsible for document reliability and worker safety. Although the provisions related to additional guarantees on the basis of business indicated in this direction, the expected improvement could not be seen. Provincial and local level access to foreign employment records should be established. It includes data on the number, nature of work and skills of foreign workers from the state and local levels. Employment opportunities at the local level and returnees to work as well as social integration are facilitated. The system of illegally buying demand from agents rather than reaching the source of the destination country and obtaining the demand of workers by licensed foreign employment professionals has increased the cost and risk of recruitment. It is necessary for businessmen to control the trading system by setting up agents informally. It is necessary to provide more time for identification and promotion of areas of comparative advantage and labor diplomacy by providing local manpower to foreign missions. 

Another important pillar of good governance is rule of law. It is the government's responsibility to increase the regulatory capacity in foreign employment and make it lawful. Controlling fraud, bringing informal transactions to the fore, bringing those who do not comply with the law to justice must be tough. The system of dealing with personal fraud complaints from the concerned district administration office should be more effective. Similarly, the Foreign Employment Act, 2064 has required timely reforms. For this, it is necessary to review the foreign employment policy first. The National Assembly has already pointed out that some of the rules, guidelines, procedures made under the delegation legislation are not in accordance with the constitution and the law, according to which these issues should be improved. There is a need to incorporate the latest developed international standards, conventions and good practices into the law. 

Controlling corruption and irregular activities is another aspect of good governance. It is necessary to eliminate the position of vested interest groups in the foreign employment administration. Clear job responsibilities and clear procedures make it easy to hold people accountable for work. It is necessary to pay attention to the monitoring system, decent recruitment system, bringing the income of businessmen under the scope of tax, ethics.