The government has decided to recall 11 of the ambassadors appointed by the previous government a few days ago. They have also been given a deadline of Kartik 20 to return. 10 of the 11 were appointed under political quotas. They were cadres-ambassadors of various factions within the party and within the party.

In terms of Nepal's labor migration, the major destination countries have been Malaysia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Israel. Similarly, the Nepali ambassadors appointed to the United States and the United Kingdom have also been recalled. Those countries are seen as more strategically important than for labor migration.

As of the time of writing this article, the ambassadors have not been recalled from the neighboring powers of China and India, which are not only important in terms of neighboring diplomacy but also in terms of influencing Nepal's role on the world stage. They are also cadres-ambassadors appointed under political quotas.

On the other hand, those sent under political quotas and important labor destination countries such as South Korea and Australia have not been recalled yet. The government must have decided who to recall, when to whom, and what to do in the current sensitive situation. It is not the intention of this article to comment on that.

However, the then leadership of the Ministry of Labor and the fraternal organizations of political parties, the foreign employment entrepreneurs, have repeatedly tried to manipulate the ‘G2G’ labor agreements of South Korea and Israel, and since they need to be made more labor-friendly by organizing them in a timely manner, it is natural to be concerned about the activist ambassadors sent there.

Similarly, the recent trend of human trafficking in Australia in the name of student visas, in which the increasing influence of human traffickers of Nepali origin, who hold NRNA cards, although not much in the debate, is also becoming more challenging. Initial indications of the ongoing research on the problems caused by visa and education ‘consultancies’ on the one hand and the impact of the recent changes in the immigration policy on the other, confirm this. Let us say this much for now.

Ambassador withdrawal decision relative to the environment

The government seems to have been restrained and cautious in taking the decision to recall some ambassadors and continue with others, considering many aspects. However, the argument in the media is that it will not be easy for the government to work in the changed environment, which is the traditional argument. There have been instances of non-cooperation by party and factional representatives in the past.

It is also not without arguments in the media for and against the decision. What is important for citizens who are interested in politics and are pro-labor citizens to understand is that the young Gen-G age group who are involved in human trafficking and trafficking is more likely to be involved. Therefore, whatever the arguments, it seems appropriate to understand them as contextual when standing on the ground of the hostile political atmosphere created by the recent political turmoil.

If we are to consider the current political change as relative to the times, we also need to understand that why was the political leadership of a country that has had an economy supported by remittances for nearly four decades not interested in bringing a unified immigration policy framework to manage immigration, the source of that remittance, by focusing on the social justice of migrant workers? It is clear that the political leadership, which is busy selling youth to foreign employment agents, has undermined the social justice of migrant workers.

The purpose of this article, prepared on the same ground, is to take the current domestic political turmoil as an opportunity and, like other areas, pay attention to making the labor migration dimension, which has been criminalized as a model of policy corruption, transparent, clean, dignified and safe.

The focus is on drawing a blueprint for Nepal's labor diplomacy by including two aspects of labor migration. One aspect, Nepal does not have an immigration policy based on remittances, and it has been delayed in making it. As a result, criminalization has become more institutionalized in the dimensions of labor migration. As a result, thousands of young workers of the Gen-G age group are forced to fall into the trap of exploitation by domestic brokers and brokers in the global labor market through unequal labor contracts.

The current Foreign Employment Act, 2064 is friendly to the brokering that has flourished within the foreign employment business. The draft named the revised act drafted by the KP Oli government towards the end of its term had the character of pushing foreign employment further towards brokering. The Sushila Karki government needs to pay attention to this.

Another multifaceted and more important aspect is the beginning of the concept of labor diplomacy. The current traditional diplomacy is not relevant to the changes in world politics. It does not even bother to address the latest challenges of the global labor market, which is becoming more complex and unequal in terms of class, gender and race due to economic and technological expansion.

In short, what we now call our diplomacy must be radically changed in that concept and made relevant to the era and generation, to which labor diplomacy must be added as an essential dimension. Because foreign employment is not a dimension that can be stopped, but it must be managed, secured and dignified. This task is possible only through labor diplomacy that is relevant to time and the labor market. Not by distorting labor migration by sending party cadres as ambassadors to destinations and by selling youth to foreign employment entrepreneurs to provide financial support to the party.

It is hoped that the current youth-friendly government will make an effort to set the initial blueprint for this. This expectation is also reflected in the informal and investigative talks we regularly have with migrant workers working in various countries, most of whom are in the J-G age group.

A blueprint with labor diplomacy

In a country that does not even have an immigration policy, we want an integrated immigration policy that includes both sides, including labor diplomacy. But it may not be possible for the government, which is burdened with the main responsibility of the election, to complete that task in a short period of time. And it will also require parliament to pass it. But at the initiative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a trusted group of experienced civil servants from the ministries of labor, home, finance, women, law, health, and education can do the homework on the blueprint.

In this work, the knowledge and experience of representatives of workers who are victims of labor migration, former ambassadors and former administrators of the Ministry of Labor who have led labor-friendly and balanced labor agreements in major destinations including the Gulf and returned after being counted on the fingers of one hand (both of these categories are sitting in a 'low profile'), parliamentarians who have continuously advocated for migrant workers in the dissolved federal parliament, and immigration researchers are also essential.

It is not that we do not have skilled human resources, it is just that human resources with efficiency, honesty, and a sense of responsibility have been marginalized due to the policy-making process infected with party/clique interests. Many such skilled and experienced human resources are found in society during the research, who do not engage in factional games but have accumulated abundant knowledge and experience. The current government can use that knowledge and experience if it wants. And, it can work positively in favor of social justice for young workers who are facing discrimination in the domestic and international labor markets.

Why is labor diplomacy necessary?

Political corruption that has permeated the process of good governance and justice, and the decades-long distorted process of appointing leaders of state bodies through auctions rather than qualifications, skills, and abilities, has become established as the culture of state governance. Against such a backdrop, labor migration (also known as foreign employment) has been institutionalized as a model of policy corruption, and our state administration is anti-migrant and friendly to foreign employment professionals, including those who have become party loyalists.

Not only that, the labor migration process is more flawed in policy than it is distorted by our embassies in the destination countries and the domestic and destination networks that influence it, brokers who traffic and sell human beings in the name of foreign employment. In addition, embassies led by cadres-ambassadors who do not understand migration sent through political appointments and who are responsible not to the country but to the leaders who appoint them, have not been able to understand the increasingly toxic destination labor market and address the challenges and protect their citizen workers.

In fact, in some destinations, cadre-ambassadors and their supporting staff are also found to be partnering with domestic and destination brokers. One of the many examples I have personally experienced while working as an employee of the United Nations Migration Agency is how the seats on charter flights targeting Nepali migrant workers working in the Gulf, arranged by the state during the Corona period, were sold through the central offices of political parties in Kathmandu.

I remember the NRNA representative requesting the cadre-ambassador coordinating the charter flight in the Gulf to rescue a 27-year-old youth who was stranded on the streets of Tripoli, Libya, for 2.5 million rupees, and send him to Nepal. There are many examples that, instead of initiating labor diplomacy in the interests of migrant workers, the existing thick, unequal, compromise-averse, powerless diplomacy has also been exploited by partisanship/faction.

Why has the elected political leadership of a democratic country whose economy has been supported by remittances from India for decades and remittances from many other destinations around the world for nearly four decades not been able to add a dimension of labor diplomacy to traditional political diplomacy on the basis of remittance-focused economic policies? This question is as relevant as it is complex. That is in the sense that the cadres-ambassadors, who are responsible not to the country but to the leader, cannot shoulder this responsibility, nor can they cooperate to make traditional diplomacy relevant to the times.

Because, with a few exceptions that can be counted on the fingers, the attention of the cadres-ambassadors sent so far has not been focused on the workers and the country. Some of the exceptions have not tried to make labor agreements, one aspect of labor diplomacy, timely and labor-friendly in the Gulf, while fulfilling their responsibilities by putting the country at the center rather than the party and leader. But the context of how much foreign employment entrepreneurs, their own leaders, and the divided bureaucracy helped them is important. 

On the other hand, the stories of ambassadors sent by the foreign service are also mixed. However, when we look at the research they have conducted in the labor destination countries they lead, listen to the experiences of migrant workers, understand their sufferings, and analyze the efforts of the embassy, ​​the picture is slightly different. The influence of foreign employment professionals, the fraternal organizations of the parties, is also found to be complicated in these.

However, how an ambassador copes and how responsible he is towards the workers is a matter of how important his sense of responsibility towards his service recipients and his taxpayer citizens is. Overall, analyzing the experiences of labor networks working in more than a hundred countries where Nepal has accepted labor, including the Gulf, Malaysia, Korea, Israel, Japan, Eastern and Western Europe, Australia, the UK, and others, some indications are visible.

We need to look at the difference between employee-ambassadors sent by the foreign service and activist-ambassadors sent by political parties in the context of their perspective towards migrant workers, concerns, sense of responsibility, understanding of the nature of the labor market of the destination country, and their access to the diplomatic network of that country. Despite this, the Gulf and Malaysia are the destinations where the largest number of workers go, and these are also the destinations where the most unrest and corruption in labor migration occur. 

Finally, in this environment of the government determined by the changed political dimension of the Gen-G movement and the general expectations it has generated - the beginning of addressing corruption, the guarantee of good governance and the beginning of a political process that is relevant to time, society and generation by holding fresh elections, it is necessary to address all aspects of corruption institutionalized in the name of labor migration. Otherwise, injustice will be done to the tens of millions of young workers working in India and other countries, the backbone of the country's economy.

As mentioned above, labor migration is not a dimension that can be stopped or will be stopped, it is a dynamic economic, social, cultural and political dimension, which should be managed not by criminalizing it, but by a labor-friendly policy framework based on social justice. In a society like ours where public awareness is low and family economic possibilities are limited, the corruption associated with it is also multifaceted.