Roshan Sedhai

The Nepal mission in Saudi Arabia has rescued Nepali housemaids facing exploitations from their employers. The embassy in Riyadh said it rescued more than 600 Nepali women working as domestic helps in the last 22 months.

The victims had taken refuge at the embassy after they were physically, mentally and economically exploited by their employers. It provided necessary documents and air tickets for their repatriation.

The embassy record shows it rescued a total of 28 victims in the Nepali month of Baisakh. Mission officials said an increasing number of women run away from confinement of their employers. Under kafala, the system that governs the working lives of every foreigner employed in Saudi Arabia, workers cannot change jobs or leave the country without their employers’ permission. “An average of 30 women come to the embassy every month. Most of them flee from their employers to escape cruelty and several abuses,” said Udaya Raj Pandey, Nepali ambassador to Saudi Arabia. The embassy has run a safe house to give shelter to the women who need an immediate help.

Besides providing accommodation and food, it also issues travel documents free of cost and facilitate in providing air tickets to victims. Officials say various organisations and individuals, including the non-resident Nepali organisations, have been providing air tickets to those women.

Despite the government ban on Nepali women to work in Saudi Arabia as domestic helps, an increasing number of Nepali women are being smuggled into the Gulf kingdom via India, often taking an exorbitant charge. The embassy has estimated that around 50,000 women are currently working as housemaids in Saudi Arabia. In absence of proper laws, legal remedy and a spot-rescue mechanism, migrant workers in Saudi are forced to endure violence and exploitation. “We have found that some Nepali and Indian agents are actively smuggling Nepali women to Saudi Arabia. The embassy has collected detailed information of those agents,” said Ambassador Pandey.

The embassy has been tipping the Foreign Affairs, Labour and Home ministries and the Department of Foreign Employment off about over 100 traffickers calling for a prompt action. But the government could not punish even a single trafficker in the last one year.

Buddhi Bahadur Khadka, spokesperson of the Labour Ministry, said his office has only received the latest lists of agents send by the embassy. “The (Labour) Ministry has asked the Home Ministry to take an immediate action after receiving the letter from the embassy. The Secretary has also requested other embassies to send such details to fight against the agents,” said Khadka. He said the Home Ministry has initiated a process to book traffickers.

Although the recently announced amnesty scheme helps domestic workers return home back without a legal punishment, embassy officials say most of them will not be successful to take such a benefit.

Published on: 26 May 2013 | The Kathmandu Post