The request was made during talks between Nepalese Prime Minister Madhav Kumar and Deputy Minister of Islamic Affairs Abdullah Al-Alam in Katmandu on Friday.
Drawing Alam's attention toward cases of harassment of Nepalese women workers, the prime minister urged the Saudi minister to focus on protecting Nepali workers.
"Hundreds of thousands Nepalese citizens work in your country. I hope Saudi Arabia will protect them by addressing their problems," the Nepalese premier is quoted as saying.
Al-Alam promised to take initiatives to establish his country's mission in Nepal and address the problems of Nepalese workers in Saudi Arabia, the prime minister’s office said in a statement following the talks. "This is good news for both countries," Nepalese Ambassador Hamid Ansari told Arab News on Saturday.
He said there are 500,000 Nepalese workers in the Kingdom, including a substantial number of undocumented overstayers. "If a Saudi mission is set up in Nepal, instant solutions could be found to most of the problems," the envoy said.
"Although there is a blanket ban on Nepalese housemaids coming to the Kingdom, some 60,000 domestic aides still work in the country," Ansari said, pointing out that around 5,000 of them have come officially with the knowledge of the Nepalese government to work as cleaners in hospitals and other places where women are allowed to work.
The ambassador stressed that a Saudi mission in Nepal would put a stop on the unscrupulous activities of placement agents who send housemaids through India.
According to official figures released by the government of Nepal, some 70,000 of its workers come to the Kingdom annually.
At present, the Saudi missions in Mumbai and New Delhi issue work visas for Nepalese domestic aides, while its mission in Dhaka gives visas for other workers. "An embassy in Nepal could streamline the issuance of visas and the Nepal government could enforce the strict ban on housemaids coming to the Kingdom," he said.
Khadga Prasad Dahal, first secretary of the Nepalese Embassy, who is in charge of labor welfare told Arab News, that his office receives at least three cases of runaway maids on a daily basis.
He said the mission runs a safe house that provides shelter to these distressed maids who become victims of various abuses and nonpayment of salaries.
"We have 20 of them now. We try to settle the disputes through negotiations with their respective employers, failing which we repatriate them home," the diplomat said, adding that the mission has plans to set up its consulate in Jeddah to concentrate on consular and welfare work for the countrymen in western Saudi Arabia.
“We rarely get complaints from our male workers who mostly work in farms, gas stations, parks, airports and factories,” the official said.
