Roshan Sedhai

Around 90 percent of Nepali migrants working illegally in Saudi Arabia have either returned home or made themselves legal, the Nepali mission in Riyadh said on Monday. The embassy attributed this to a warning from the Saudi government to crack down on the illegals and also to an opportunity it gave to such workers to return home without being penalised. The oil-rich kingdom had on April 6 launched legalisation (mass amnesty) campaign for all illegal migrant workers. The scheme announced by Saudi King Abdullah has been extended until November 3.

Records at the embassy show that around 35,000 illegal Nepali workers have utilised the amnesty scheme so far. An additional 15,000 Nepalis were deported from the country in the last two years. However, unlike those taking advantage of the amnesty scheme, the deportees had to face a few months’ imprisonment before they were given existing visas.

Officials at the Nepali mission in Riyadh said various measures taken by the Saudi government have been successful in addressing the issue of illegal workers.

“We are still expecting a few thousand more to apply for amnesty as we still have two more months. However, I don’t think there are too many illegal (Nepali) workers left in Saudi now,” Nepali Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Udaya Raj Pandey said. He added that the embassy helped the workers get back home by providing them with the travel documents, while it also helped around 6,500 Nepalis make their stay in the country legal.

Though there are no reliable data, the embassy said that an estimated 60,000 Nepalis (excluding women) had been working illegally in the Gulf country.

While documents at the embassy show that an estimated 50,000 Nepali women are currently working in the Islamic kingdom, only 200 women have applied for amnesty so far. Pandey attributed this to various reasons, including lack of access for the women to the outside world and latest information.

Published on: 17 September 2013 | The Kathmandu Post