The overseas employment sector and related businesses have generated thousands of jobs in the country, a report by the Nepal Institute of Development Studies says. According to the report, 344,000 people are employed in services related to overseas employment in the country while more than 250,000 people go abroad for employment every year.

About 18,000 people are employed in health examination centres, orientation centres, advertising agencies, photo studios, restaurants and other services that cater to the overseas business. Five thousand people are employed in various manpower agencies and 321,000 people are working as manpower agents, the report says. The private sector earns about Rs 81.2 million every day from the overseas employment sector.

Chairperson of the Association of Foreign Employment Agencies, Somnath Bataju, says that almost 75 per cent of all workers have gone abroad while 20 per cent cannot afford to seek foreign employment. The majority of those going for foreign employment are people from Dalit and ethnic communities, he says.

Forty-four per cent of households in Nepal have at least one member who has gone abroad for work.

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