The mental health of labour migrants is worth protectingWHEN going abroad, migrant workers are thrown into a labyrinth filled with countless obstacles, both unforeseen and expected. Life in an unknown land, thousands of miles away from home, comes with expected bouts of loneliness and is accompanied by a variety of hardships related to adjusting to a new place. With many leaving Nepal after being given little idea of what to expect, migrant workers are made more vulnerable to numerous things they might not be prepared to face. Lacking proper knowledge and awareness, many are more at risk of contracting communicable diseases, including HIV. And stories of poor working conditions, cases of exploitation, and reports of physical abuse seem to be a fixture in the nation’s news.

The emotional toll that working and living under these conditions has taken on the nation’s migrant workers is increasingly clear as more workers return to Nepal, especially from difficult conditions in Gulf countries, with a host of mental illnesses ranging from depression to schizophrenia. Though extensive research is lacking to measure the extent of the problem, initial indicators are evidence that a serious crisis could be looming if this issue remains unaddressed. Suicides by migrant workers are on the rise. And recent surveys have revealed that a considerable percentage of labour migrants return to Nepal with mental health problems, a large portion of which are serious cases. In the absence of mental health checks to qualify before being sent into the thrœs of foreign labour, many workers both knowingly and unknowingly take on the stress of working abroad with pre-existing conditions. Without an adequate pre-departure orientation to better prepare migrant workers for the realities they will face abroad, the shock upon arrival can only further compound existing problems. Despite increasing awareness of mental health problems in Nepal, people still prefer to keep them out of the public eye. But those that argue that individual health problems shouldn’t be taken as a collective problem should think otherwise. Though the direct costs of mental health care—like visits to the doctor and the purchase of any medication—may be minimal in Nepal due to the small amount of people who utilise these services, the indirect and intangible costs of neglected mental health are enormous. The most obvious indirect cost comes from evidence of unaddressed mental health problems that eventually transform into serious medical illnesses. Another huge consequence of unidentified and untreated mental health problems is the loss in productivity of ailing workers and the subsequent loss in earnings. In a nation gradually shifting to a remittance-based economy (remittance income has now officially climbed up to 21 percent of the GDP), the collective impact of the unaddressed mental health problems of valuable remittance workers has the capability to seriously cripple the economy, or at the very least, keep it from reaching its full potential.

Published on: 30 March 2011 | The Kathmandu Post