Nepali missions abroad are verifying applicants’ status before recommending their names to the government to provide them airfare from Migrant Workers Welfare Fund.

The collaboration enables UNFCU members to transfer money to mobile wallets in select countries in local currencies.

Since the economic slowdown resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, work for many of them has dried up. The UN is supporting efforts to manage the large-scale influx of returnee workers.

Nepal, where remittance contribution to GDP in 2019 was equivalent to 27.3 percent, according to the World Bank, has lost nearly 50 percent of remittances in the past two months compared to the same period last year.

The government’s decision to stop issuing permits to migrant workers will have significant consequences for the country, where economic activities are driven by remittances, experts say.