A large number of Nepali migrant workers are subject to exploitation and forced labour in the Gulf states and Malaysia due largely to dishonest recruitment agencies, an Amnesty International report read.

The report claimed that women constitute 30 percent of the total migrant workers of Nepal although  official data puts it at 3 percent.

According to the report, migrant workers take loan for up to 35 percent interest rate against 14 percent determined by law.

The report based on the interviews of 150 migrant workers found that 90 percent of them were duped by recruitment agencies. These deceptions included denial of weekly off and much less salary than promised in the contract.

“Nepalese people seek a better life abroad but they are duped even before leaving home as recruitment agents flout contract,” said Norma Kang Muico, AI’s researcher. “By the time they find out the true nature of their work, many are already trapped and saddled which large loans for private lenders with annual interest rate of up to 60 percent.”

The burden of loans make them vulnerable to exploitation, says the report. Support of stakeholders to exploited workers is too little and too late, said the report.

However, Purna Chandra Bhattarai, the director general at the Department of Foreign Employment, said they have tried to make the foreign employment industry decent, secure and organised.

He informed that the department has restricted workers from going to companies that entail hazards. He also urged the AI to pressurise destination countries to amend unfriendly domestic laws related to migrant workers.

Similarly, the president of Foreign Employment Association Nepal, Prem Bahadur Katuwal, said recruitment agencies alone are not to blame for problems surrounding migrant workers, as a large number of them reach abroad through personal contacts.  “How did 80,000 women reach Saudi, a country banned for female workers?” he questioned. He urged broader coordination among all stakeholders.

According to the latest report, 2.8 million Nepalese are abroad, which is 7.30 percent of the country’s total population while the migration rate worldwide is just 3 percent.

Published on: 14 December 2011 | The Kathmandu Post