Seychelles proposes G2G labour pact

Kathmandu, August 3

Seychelles, which is one of the smallest countries (island) in Africa, has shown an interest to hire Nepali migrant workers and has made a proposal to do so on a government-to-government (G2G) basis.

Spokesperson at the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security (MoLESS), Prakash Dahal, informed that Seychelles government had sent a draft of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to MoLESS through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in July. “They are interested to hire Nepali workers as security guards,” he added.

According to Dahal, the MoLESS will take an appropriate decision after conducting a thorough study of the proposal. He also informed that the ministry will conduct a study on the economic condition, labour laws, salaries to be paid, working
environment and facilities to be provided to the workers in Seychelles.

“We want to ensure that the salaries being offered to workers are good and also that other facilities and benefits are as expected before we sign an agreement with any new labour destination,” he added.

According to him, the proposal has mentioned about employing Nepali workers to work as security personnel in prisons and has offered handsome payments.

Earlier, the government had said that it will gradually sign labour pacts with major labour destinations of Nepali workers. Minister of Labour, Employment and Social Security Gokarna Bista had previously told The Himalayan Times that the government is planning to sign labour agreements with nations like Japan, Portugal, Oman, Mauritius and Canada, where payments and other facilities for migrant workers are comparatively higher and better.

Similarly, the government is planning to revisit the labour pacts with countries like Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It also plans to revisit the labour pacts with all the destination countries and sign new agreements, which are beneficial for Nepali migrant workers.