The number of Nepali workers in Europe has risen sharply over the past year, marking a structural shift in the country’s labour migration patterns as jobseekers look increasingly beyond the Gulf. In the first eleven months of the current fiscal year, 53,951 Nepali workers received new labour approvals to work across 24 European nations, according to figures from the Department of Foreign Employment.
Europe now accounts for 14.7 percent of Nepal’s total outbound workforce, up substantially from 8.69 percent the previous fiscal year. Of those who migrated to Europe during this period, 12,482, or nearly 24 percent, were women. The shift comes as tensions across West Asia raise questions about the long-term stability of traditional Gulf employment hubs, which still account for 55.4 percent of Nepal’s outbound labour force, with Malaysia taking a further 15.9 percent, out of roughly 367,000 Nepalis who left the country for 160 destinations during the period under new labour permits.
Why Nepali Workers in Europe Are Choosing Romania and Cyprus
Romania has emerged as the single largest European destination, attracting 24,767 Nepali workers, including 3,144 women, or roughly 46 percent of all Nepalis who migrated to Europe during the period. Nepal’s acting ambassador to Germany, who also oversees relations with Romania, said the country has become especially attractive since joining the Schengen Area, noting that a bilateral labour agreement between the two countries has already been signed and is being prepared for full implementation. Nepalis are now understood to make up the largest community of foreign workers in Romania.
A study by Romania’s Economic and Social Council found that the country has set an annual quota of 100,000 non-European Union workers to address chronic labour shortages, with demand concentrated in construction, hospitality, manufacturing, warehousing, logistics and caregiving. In Ilfov county, which surrounds the capital, Bucharest, more than 51,000 foreign nationals have registered, with Nepalis forming the largest group. Romanian officials have said foreign workers are drawn to the area by stronger employment prospects and the possibility of family reunification, though Romania’s labour minister has acknowledged that many foreign workers are reluctant to remain in their assigned roles, which is why the full quota is rarely met in practice.
Cyprus has become the second-largest European destination, with 7,314 Nepalis, including 4,742 women, receiving new labour permits, with most of the women employed in domestic work. Other significant destinations include Portugal, Malta, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Greece and Austria, while access to larger Western European economies remains far more limited, with only a few hundred permits issued for countries such as Germany, Ireland, France and Spain.
For a portion of workers, Eastern Europe functions as a stepping stone rather than a final destination. Some obtain temporary residence cards in countries such as Romania or Croatia before moving onward to Western Europe once their documentation allows, while others attempt the journey through irregular routes across the Balkans, a path that has grown increasingly risky as authorities tighten checks on new arrivals at airports and border crossings.
Structural Labour Shortages Are Driving Demand
The pull factors are not limited to Nepal’s own migration patterns. According to the European Labour Authority’s most recent report on labour shortages and surpluses, workforce deficits across the continent have evolved from temporary bottlenecks into structural challenges, with shortages identified across 2,617 occupations. Italy faces the most acute deficit, followed by the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Belgium and Romania, with these five countries accounting for 38 percent of all occupational shortages identified across Europe.
The shortages are attributed to demographic shifts, mismatches between available skills and market needs, difficult working conditions and limited labour mobility within the region. Around 57 percent of the identified shortages are classified as high or medium severity, meaning employers continue to struggle with recruitment even as broader economic pressures ease. The healthcare and caregiving sectors face a particularly acute crisis, with more than 25 million people employed across the continent in these fields and a 36 percent shortfall in specialist physicians, general practitioners, nurses and healthcare assistants. Non-EU nationals now make up 92 percent of home-care workers in Europe and as much as 18 percent of highly skilled medical professionals, including physicians and dentists.
Family Reunification and the Risks of Informal Migration
For many Nepali workers, the appeal of Europe lies less in immediate earnings and more in the prospect of long-term stability and eventual family reunification. One migrant who previously worked in the hospitality sector in the United Arab Emirates for seven years said her earnings in Bulgaria are lower than what she made in the Gulf, but that securing permanent residency would allow her to bring her family over in time. According to European employment data, a general worker in the region earns an average of around 1,200 euros a month, with typical savings falling well below 500 euros once overtime is excluded.
The path to Europe is not without significant risk. Because Nepal’s government has barred recruitment agencies from formally facilitating placements in Europe, most jobseekers rely on personal networks or informal agents, often paying between 700,000 and 2 million Nepali rupees for arrangements that leave them highly exposed to fraud. The Department of Foreign Employment has recorded nearly 5,000 complaints related to European employment fraud, with claimed damages exceeding 240 million rupees. Community representatives working with Nepali migrants in Europe have described undocumented workers struggling to secure housing, open bank accounts or renew visas, while facing unpaid overtime, low wages and poor safety conditions on the job.
Nepal’s Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security has said it is prioritising the European market as part of a broader push to diversify migration destinations, and has sent draft bilateral labour agreements to eleven countries, including Albania, Austria, Turkey, Malta, Serbia, Cyprus and Poland. Officials acknowledge that institutional recruitment channels have not yet reached the scale they had hoped for, but say coordination with Nepal’s foreign ministry is ongoing to establish safer migration pathways as the number of Nepali workers in Europe continues to grow.
Published in SouthAsianDesk, July 18, 2026
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