More than 22,000 Nepalese workers are returning from Qatar within next two months because the companies that employed them have nullified the contracts, a Nepali agent said here Sunday.

"The companies that employed more than 22,000 Nepalese workers have nullified the contacts before the stipulated time," said Nirmal Gurung, president of Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies, a non-government organization.

The workers who were taken there by the Nepalese manpower companies were told that their contract would be valid up to three years, but upon reaching Qatar, the workers came to know that the contact was for a year only, he revealed.

The youths were mostly working in the stadium in preparation for the upcoming Asian Games scheduled to be held in Doha in 2006.

The construction is expected to finish before the coming August, so the Nepalese will be returning soon after, he noted.

Nepali Minister for Labor and Transport Management Ram Narayan Singh said, the ministry will hold discussions and try to find a solution to the problem.

Source: Xinhua