Nepal–Saudi Arabia to sign landmark labor agreement today

KATHMANDU: Nepal and Saudi Arabia are set to sign their first-ever bilateral labor agreement on Sunday evening in Riyadh, marking a major breakthrough in labor diplomacy after nearly a decade of negotiations and draft-level discussions between the two countries.

Minister for Labour, Employment and Social Security Rajendra Singh Bhandari has departed for Saudi Arabia, leading a three-member Nepali delegation to formalize the agreement, which will govern the recruitment, protection, and employment of Nepali workers in the Saudi labor market.

The agreement will be signed by Minister Bhandari and his Saudi counterpart, Minister of Human Resources and Social Development Ahmad bin Sulaiman Al-Rajhi, who has been leading Saudi Arabia’s human resources ministry since 2018.

Saudi Arabia is the largest destination for Nepali migrant workers, and work on a formal labor agreement has been ongoing for nearly ten years. Despite high labor migration flows, the two countries had so far operated without a comprehensive bilateral framework regulating recruitment, employment conditions, and worker protections.

The breakthrough came in late Jestha in Geneva, when then Labour Minister Sharat Singh Bhandari and Saudi Deputy Minister for International Affairs Tariq Al-Hamdi agreed to proceed with a general labor agreement while keeping a separate agreement for domestic workers pending for further preparation. The Ministry of Labour has stated that additional groundwork is underway to finalize a separate domestic workers’ agreement.

According to the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security, the agreement prioritizes transparent recruitment processes to prevent human trafficking, expands employment opportunities for Nepali workers in Saudi Arabia, and institutionalizes respect for the rights and obligations of both workers and employers. The agreement has been structured in line with International Labour Organization (ILO) labor standards.

The ministry stated that the agreement addresses key structural issues in labor migration, including wage protection under Saudi labor law, the elimination of dual contract practices, control of excessive recruitment costs, prevention of fraud by manpower agencies, and guaranteed access to justice for Nepali workers in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia currently employs around 400,000 Nepali workers, mainly in the construction and service sectors. Over the past decade, a total of 1,352,800 Nepali workers have been deployed to Saudi Arabia, including 111,000 women workers. In fiscal year 2081/82 (BS) alone, 152,000 Nepalis traveled to Saudi Arabia with renewed labor approvals.

The human cost of labor migration remains significant. According to the latest report of the Ministry of Labour, 684 Nepali workers died in Saudi Arabia over the past two fiscal years, underscoring the urgency of stronger legal protections, institutional safeguards, and enforceable labor governance mechanisms.

Officials say the agreement is expected to fundamentally restructure Nepal–Saudi labor relations by shifting recruitment and employment into a regulated, transparent, and rights-based framework, with long-term implications for labor safety, remittance security, and migration governance.