After a hiatus of seven years, the government has started preparations to send caregivers to Israel with a test to select the first batch of Nepali aspirants scheduled for Tuesday.

According to the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE), the first 100 examinees out of the 139 that had applied in the first phase were picked through a lottery system. Ninety of them are female.

“We will select 60 of them in the first phase as per our agreement with Israel to send caregivers,” said Kedar Bahadur Bogati, director general at the DoFE.

The 60 people will leave the country in the pilot phase of the government-to-government (G2G) recruitment system, according to the Ministry of Labour and Employment. As per the proposed rule, Nepali caregivers can go to Israel paying a maximum of Rs 65,000.

Israel, one of the most sought after destinations for Nepali caregivers, has not hired Nepalis through recruitment agencies since April 2009 citing irregularities in the work of the foreign employment agencies.

After South Korea, Israel is the second job market to open for Nepalis under the G2G initiative. Israel had banned hiring Nepali workers through manpower agencies since 2009 after the anomalies of the recruiting agencies in Israel and Nepali manpower companies surfaced. Even though Israel had stopped hiring workers sent by manpower agencies, many aspirants had been leaving for jobs in Israel though personal approach obtaining “individual work permit” from the department.

A joint taskforce was formed some three years ago at the government level to reopen the Israeli job market for Nepalis. A Nepali caregiver can earn at least Rs100,000 each month in Israel.