NRNA submits 13-point memo to govt over stranded migrant workers

16 June London : The Non-Resident Nepalis Association (NRNA) has submitted a 13-point memorandum to the government drawing its attention to the plight of Nepali migrant workers stranded in various countries due to the lockdown.

NRNA president Kumar Panta and Dr Badri KC, through a call attention letter to the government on Monday, urged the government to immediately rescue the stranded migrant workers. KC is the NRNA vice-president and chief of NRNA Welfare Department.

The call attention letter is addressed to Deputy Prime Minister Ishwor Pokhrel, who is also the coordinator of the High-level Coordination Committee for the Prevention and Control of COVID-19, the Minister for Labour, Employment and Social Security, Rameshwor Yadav and Minister for Foreign Affairs Pradeep Kumar Gyawali.

Through the call-attention letter, NRNA has urged the government to further expedite the rescue process. It has made various suggestions regarding the steps the government needs to take for rescuing Nepalis stranded abroad.

NRNA has called on the government to make practical and easy provision for operation of chartered flights, to ease the return of workers if they want to return for work abroad, to immediately rescue the students who have run out of money with government money, to make arrangements for sound holding centres in the country and to give permission to return home to the Nepalis waiting at the shelters.

Likewise, it has urged the government to repatriate the bodies of hundreds of Nepali migrant workers abroad and hand them over to their families back in Nepal for conducting the last rites as per cultural rituals and to take concrete measures to provide assistance through the Foreign Employment Welfare Fund to the stranded workers.