South Korea is likely to take more than 6,000 Nepali workers under the Employment Permit System (EPS) in 2022 – a figure significantly higher compared with COVID-19-disrupted years of 2020 and 2021.

It is taking in 59,000 workers from 16 EPS partner countries reports The Rising Nepal.

About 35,530 will be new while 23,470 will be re-entry including committed workers. Korea had taken 7000 to 8000 workers from Nepal from 2016-2019. However, COVID-19 pandemic caused a sharp fall to 955 workers in 2020 and 389 in 2021.

“It is confirmed that we are taking about 6,000 workers from Nepal. However, since the demand for Nepali workers in Korea is quite good, the number might go up to match with pre-pandemic period,” said Kim Un Duck, Representative of Human Resources Development Service of Korea that manages the EPS Centre in Nepal.

Korea had taken 7000 to 8000 workers from Nepal from 2016-2019. However, COVID-19 pandemic caused a sharp fall to 955 workers in 2020 and 389 in 2021.