Sophia Furber

The following piece of mine appeared in the Kathmandu Post's 16th Anniversary supplement in mid-Feb: The past year saw an unprecedented number of Nepalis migrate to work in destinations such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and the UAE, drawn by the promise better opportunities and higher salaries than Nepal’s sluggish economy can offer. Nepal’s two million strong migrant workforce has not typically received much media attention, but as their level of contribution to the Nepali economy – and the risks they face while working overseas – became impossible to ignore, modern-day ‘Lahures’ became a hot topic of discussion in 2008. An estimated 239,000 Nepalis migrated for work in the 2007/8 financial year, adding to a growing diaspora population in the Gulf and Asia. Around 350,000 Nepalis now work in Qatar, and 400,000 in Malaysia, mostly in blue-collar jobs.

January 2008 saw Kantipur start the publication of a newspaper from Doha, Kantipur Prawas Saptahik, to serve the growing Nepali community. The paper, which has just celebrated its first anniversary, has been described as ‘a friend in both sorrow and joy’ for Qatar’s Nepali community.

As the number of migrants rose in 2008, so did remittance levels. The money that migrants send home are not just a vital source of income for families and communities back home, but are now a major contributor to the Nepali economy as a whole, accounting for around 17% of GDP in 2008. To put this in context, this is a higher share than that seen in the Philippines, a country synonymous with labour migration, where remittances account for around 11% of GDP. Remittances surged by 65.8% during the first five months of the 2008/09 fiscal year, and helped Nepal to maintain a healthy current account surplus of Rs22.8 billion during this period, according to figures released recently by Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB).

But high remittances come at a heavy price, as several stories from 2008 illustrated. Dangerous working conditions and abusive employers mean that overseas contracts can be a dangerous undertaking for Nepalis. In January last year, reports from Nepali embassies confirmed that over 500 Nepalis had died in the Gulf States in 2007, from a combination of ‘natural causes’, suicides, workplace accidents and cardiac arrests. Heart attacks are known to be a common cause of deaths among Nepali construction workers in the Gulf States, who are unaccustomed to working in the scorching desert heat. Nepali women working as maids are even more vulnerable to abuse than construction workers, and often leave home with no idea of what to expect in the Gulf. Cases of physical abuse and underpayment are common, and the Nepali Embassy in Qatar has to offer shelter on numerous occasions to maids fleeing their employers, such as 26-year old Sushila Pun, who escaped from ‘unbearable’ conditions in the home of her Qatari employer in October.

Despite a rising death toll and the prevalence of abuses, the Gulf States have been largely unwilling implement laws to protect migrant workers. The UAE submitted to its first Universal Periodic Review by the UN in December 2008, and received numerous comments from the panel about its poor treatment of workers in the construction sector. However, the UAE has rejected out of hand UN recommendations, such as allowing workers to form trade unions. Similarly, Bahraini authorities have turned blind eyes to a ban on the dangerous practice of transporting workers in open trucks, passed on January 2009.

The case of Nepali maid Dolma Sherpa, sentenced to death in Kuwait for allegedly murdering her Filipina roommate, caused an outcry in Nepal in 2008. The details of the case remain patchy, but what is clear is that Dolma would have remained on death row in Kuwait without access to legal support had her husband, working as a cook on an American military base in Iraq, not returned home to Nepal to raise the alarm. Since Nepal maintains no embassy in Kuwait, Dolma found herself stranded without access to diplomatic backup – the nearest embassy is in Riyadh, in neighbouring Saudi Arabia. Members of the Nepali diaspora were quick to pool their resources to pay for legal support for Dolma; the Association of non-resident Nepalis collected Rs 300,000, while a Qatari-based mission collected Rs1.1 million. After a court hearing in December, Dolma was permitted to return home to Nepal for trial, and to serve out the rest of her sentence in her home country if found guilty.

Dolma’s case highlighted the lack of diplomatic representation available to Nepalis working overseas. Nepal only maintains 19 embassies overseas, many of which lack sufficient labour attaches to cope with the complex needs of a growing expatriate population. However, at the end of 2008 the government announced plans to send labour attaches to Qatar, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and the UAE in order to deal with employment issues facing Nepalis.

The government is now working to encourage migrants to go through the correct channels to work abroad, in a bid to make the process safer and more manageable. At present, the problems faced by Nepalis working in countries other than India are compounded by the fact that less than half of them have proper work permits.

In December 2008, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported that 8 Nepali men, part of a group of 60 migrants including Bangladeshis, Indians and Pakistanis, had been stranded in Iraq for five months after being lured into the country illegally with false promises of employment. The IOM has since offered help with repatriation, but several members of the group have declined, saying that they will be unable to pay off debts of up to US$3000 to brokers and money lenders if they return home.

International demand for Nepali workers seemed boundless in the first half of 2008, as countries such as Malaysia and Qatar looked for cheap labour to power their thriving manufacturing and construction industries. However, as the year wore on it became painfully clear that even the high-growth economies of the Middle East and Asia were not immune to the effects of the global economic slowdown. By the end of 2008 the construction sector in the UAE, famed for its ambitious and flashy real estate projects, had hit rough times. Several major construction companies announced lay-offs, while a number of high-profile projects were put on hold or scaled back. Construction workers will be among the first to be hit by the cutbacks, and human rights organization Mafiwasta has raised concerns that unwanted labourers could be left stranded in the Gulf without valid work permits or the means to return home if companies neglect their responsibilities to repatriate them.

While Nepal has been relatively insulated from the fallout of the global financial crisis due to its low level of integration into the world economy, its reliance on migrant labour is one key area in which it is exposed to external shocks. Although figures from 2008 show that remittances have not fallen, there is very real risk that they will take a hit in 2009 as jobs are lost in the global slowdown.

2008 was a year of extremes for Nepali migrants in the Gulf and Southeast Asia. While their economic clout has increased dramatically, so have the risks and insecurities that they face. Despite the global slowdown, overseas migration from Nepal is an irreversible phenomenon, and is set to play a major role in the country’s economy in years to come. The major question for Nepal’s government is now how to manage the process better, so that overseas workers have the protection that they need from dangers such as loan sharks, abusive employers and unexpected job losses. The government ended the year by taking some significant steps in the right direction with plans to appoint more labour attaches, but it is clear that a lot more needs to be done in 2009 to protect the livelihoods – and lives- of overseas Nepalis.

Published on: 24 February 2009 | The Kathmandu Post