Kathmandu: Prime Minister KP Oli has said that protection of the most vulnerable, including the migrant workers and those in informal sectors, and provision of adequate social security and health care is key to minimize the impact of coronavirus pandemic.
Addressing the ILO Global Summit on COVID-19 and the World of Work – Building a Better Future of Work on Wednesday, Prime Minister Oli said the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown millions of workers and enterprises vulnerable and overall economy has suffered with global decline in investment, trade and disruption in travel industry. "The impact of coronavirus becomes unevenly high in the LDCs and low-income countries while declining remittances and potential reduction in ODA and shrinking of other resources would further compound economic stagnation", he said.
Expressing solidarity with human-centered agenda of decent work, Prime Minister Oli said that it was indispensable for robust global response with United Nations and its specialized agencies like ILO at the centre. "When labour-intensive job-market declines, millions will fall into poverty. The impact becomes unevenly high in the LDCs and low-income countries. Declining remittances and potential reduction in ODA and shrinking of other resources will further compound economic stagnation", he added.
Prime Minister Oli said that, however, it is unfortunate that migrant workers who have contributed to the building of destination countries are losing hopes and returning home in the midst of the pandemic without protection of their job and income.
"This situation, contrary to the ILO principles, could have been avoided and norms of WHO should have been observed in the process. In Nepal, within 108 days, in an average 3000 people returned home every day from India crossing our land border. About half a million migrant workers are expected to return from the Gulf region and other countries. It does not mean that we are not welcoming our nationals back home. But this scale of sudden return has posed tremendous pressure on our health system as the cases of infection shoot up rapidly" shared the Prime Minister.
He further said that humanity is tested in the time of crisis and our conscience should guide us to uphold justice and fairness even in the time of extreme difficulty. International solidarity at this hour could prevent the job loss, return of migrant workers and reversal in the progress of SDG and resulting rise of poverty.
The Prime Minister said that Nepal have invested resources within its capacity to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been estimated that nearly 63 percent of Nepali workforce would face some degree of impacts, which is more severe in urban areas and in service industries like hotel restaurant catering and tourism sector and the government has responded to the situation with some immediate and medium-term measures, added the Prime Minister.
