The total number of job aspirants leaving for Malaysia and Qatar fell by 20 percent and 30 percent, respectively, in the first eight months of the current fiscal year, triggered by the unrest in southern Nepal's terai belt and lowered labor demand, a leading website, eKantipur.com reported on Thursday.

With the decline in the number of outgoing workers to two major labor destinations, Nepal's total labor export went down by six percent to 115,879 in the review period.

The latest report prepared by the Nepali Labor Department said that the number of people leaving for Malaysia was recorded at 48, 171 in the first eight months of the current fiscal year, started in mid-July, 2006, as against 60,541 of the similar period last fiscal year.

While, the number of outgoing workers for Qatar shrunk to 27, 540 in the review period, compared to 39,397 of the similar period last year.

Keshar Bahadur Baniya, chief of Labor Department, was quoted by the website as saying that the labor export to major destinations had declined due mainly to instability in the terai region.

"Since most of the job aspirants seeking overseas employment hail from the terai region, their inability to travel to the capital due to protests has caused a severe blow to the foreign employment sector," he said.

Even the government's statistics substantiate the fact. In the month of mid-February to mid-March, the number of people leaving for Malaysia and Qatar declined by 22 percent and 85 percent respectively, said Baniya.

According to him, demands for foreign workers have shrunk in Qatar after the completion of construction work related to the Asian Games. And, most of the job seekers are not interested in taking up jobs in countries like Malaysia due to lower wages and compulsion to pay high income taxes -- to the tune of up to 30 percent of monthly income.

Source: Xinhua