Nepal to open consulate in Jeddah

Nepal will soon have an official consulate in Jeddah, revealed Udaya Raj Pandey, Nepal’s ambassador to the Kingdom, to Arab News on Wednesday. The ambassador explained that the decision to set up a consulate in the Western Province was taken in view of the increasing number of Nepalese expatriates in the Kingdom. The consulate will be headed by Sudeer Bhattarai, who is currently operating from a hotel in Jeddah until accommodation is found to help the workers who fall under the amnesty program. There are some 500,000 expatriates living in the Kingdom, including women, who work as housemaids and cleaners in hospitals and private establishments. The envoy said that there is an estimated 70,000 Nepalese housemaids living in the Kingdom who are the victims of human traffickers. “I am getting two to three runaway maids a day who had come here through unscrupulous agents in India. There is a large number of runaway maidservants who are currently sheltered under the mission’s custody. According to reports from Katmandu, Nepal has recently set up residential embassies in Bahrain and Oman, in addition to its new consulate in Jeddah. The decision to have the diplomatic missions was taken “in view of the increasing flow of migrant Nepali workers” to the three Gulf countries, a Nepalese daily said, quoting officials at the Foreign Ministry. The officials said undersecretary-level officers are heading the missions in Oman and Bahrain. The Nepalese embassies in Qatar and Saudi Arabia were earlier accredited to Bahrain and Oman respectively. The decision to establish embassies in Bahrain and Oman came in line with the country’s policy to set up residential missions where there are more than 5,000 Nepalese workers. Nepalese nationals have been recruited to work in Bahrain and Oman since 1994. According to figures provided by the Department of Foreign Employment, 33,076 Nepalese are officially employed in Bahrain and 17,083 in Oman. The ambassador said his mission has been able to obtain 25,000 exit permits for its illegal over stayers. “We were also successful in finding employment opportunities for some 7,000 men who transferred their jobs to new sponsors.” He pointed out that there is still a negligible number of overstayers who have no documents to process their cases. “We are taking up their case with authorities to rectify their situation,” he added. source: Arab News, 31 OCT 2013