Roshan Sedhai

Around 40 migrant workers bound for various countries received garlands from the under-secretary of the Ministry of Labour and Employment at the Tribhuvan International Airport on Tuesday. The act is one of many annual rituals the government performs on the occasion of International Migrants’ Day.

Among the around 2.5 million migrant workers, the group at the TIA was lucky to receive such an honour. Everyday, around 1,500 job seekers fly abroad, but almost half of them land up in trouble at reaching the destinations. The government has done precious little to ensure their labour rights and safety.

The government has unofficially opened 108 countries for employment, but has signed labour agreements with only four of them. Most of the labour destinations do not have their embassy in Nepal, compelling the workers to depend on stamping visa while going abroad.

In the absence of a strict monitoring mechanism, the workers get swindled in Nepal itself by unscrupulous agents and manpower agencies and to some extent even by government officials.

As around 75 percent of the prospective migrant workers are poorly trained and uneducated, dishonest recruitment companies and agents lure almost half of them to take the illegal route and process. Further, they are handed down fake health, training and orientation certificates, making their stay abroad a sheer nightmare. Owing to the lack of these mandatory courses, they find it hard to accomplish their assigned duties and fail to accommodate themselves in the new country psychologically, mentally and physically.

Besides such problems, they constantly live under pressure of debt they take to go abroad. The high interest rates add to their woes. Sadly enough, it has become a custom in Nepali culture to expect high interest rates when one is going abroad. Although many workers tackle these problems, some can’t handle them and end up in disastrous situations. As a result, around three migrant workers are dying in foreign lands every day. Some go insane and a large number of them return with scars of exploitation and trauma. The condition of women, who are compelled to choose the illegal channel, is worse. According to the UN Women, out of the 2,810 Nepali women migrant s who went to various destinations, 415 had gone insane, 86 had unwanted pregnancy, and 32 of them became mothers. 

Government records show over 1,500 men and women migrant s are currently imprisoned in various countries.

“The state is neither in the position to create jobs in the country nor protect these breadwinners,” says Ganesh Gurung, an expert in migration issues.

The layers of corruption in offices of key stakeholders, including the Department of Foreign Employment and the Tribhuvan International Airport, speak volumes about where the actual problem lies.

The World Bank’s new report ‘Migration and Remittance Factbook 2011’ says Nepal is among the top five countries with remittance amounting to 23 percent of the GDP. The country received payments worth US$ 2.98 billion in 2009, which is likely to reach US$ 3.5 billion in 2010. “The state must not only take from workers, but also give them safety and security in return,” said Gurung.

Published on: 19 December 2012 | The Kathmandu Post