Everyday 1200 to 1500 Nepalese workers have been going abroad for labor migration. Everyday 3 to 4 death bodies have been arrived in Nepal every day. 56% Households receive remittance in the country. Remittance from Foreign employment contribute 30% in Nepal GDP. Therefore the we can not close our eye in this issues where the country depends on foreign employment and remittance. So that the government initiate the safer migration program to address the issues of foreign employment.
The Safer Migration project (SaMi) is a bilateral initiative of the Government of Nepal (GoN) and the Government of Switzerland. The project is implemented through a partnership between HELVETAS Swiss Inter-cooperation Nepal and the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security.
The overall goal of the project is that migrants & their families are better protected by concerned Nepali institutions and benefit from decent work conditions abroad.
Through the two first phases of the project (2011-2018) of implementation, SaMi has proposed concrete models and approaches to improve foreign employment governance and the protection of migrants and their families.
The Phase III of the project is planned for 4 years, from 16 September 2018 to 15 July 2022. Phase III builds on the lessons learned from Phase II and supports the GoN to fully manage their services.
In addition, Phase III of SaMi takes place in the context of the state’s federalization process, which gives important competencies to the local governments (palikas), including on Foreign Employment. SaMi III will also support this transition and in particular local governments’ capacities to exercise their function according to good governance criteria.
In this connection, HICODEF had been implementing Safer Migration Project (SAMI) in partnering with SAMI Helvetas Swiss inter-cooperation Nepal since 2014 till July 2019 in Phase II. In III phase it has been implementing SAMI project in partnering with Local government named Kawasoti Municipali, Gaidakot Municipality, Madhybindu Municipality and Binye Triveni Rural Municipality of Nawalparasi East district.
HICODEF has been running migrant resource center (MRC) to provide essential basic information to those Nepali citizens who want to go abroad for labor. This information support them to take good decision for foreign employment and also reduce chances to be victimized during their entire process of labor migration. It has also conducted community outreach program activities through mobilizing returnee volunteers and orientation activities to inform potential migrant worker and migrant worker’s families regarding all the information of foreign employment to make their journey safe, productive and prestigious. HICODEF works in all aspects of migration like access to skill, justice, psycho-social along with financial literacy to capable the target community for best use of remittance to reduce emigration.
It has closely worked with national, provincial, district and local level stakeholders like DOFE, FEB, lawyer institution, SAMI Helvetas, District Police, District Administration Office, District Coordination Committee and respective municipalities in this issue. Furthermore local government already started to allocate some budget from their internal fund to implement safer migration project and we have started joining hand with local government to implement those project in locality.
