The government today said Nepali women willing to go to Gulf states for employment must be at least 30 years of age.

The government move comes amid reports that women from Nepal working in Gulf states are usually subjected to harassment and sexual and psychological exploitation. 

“Young female workers are reported to have been sexually and psychologically exploited in Gulf countries. So the Cabinet decided to set the age bar for woman migrant workers in the Gulf, aiming at reducing the exploitation rate,” said Minister for Information and Communications Raj Kishor Yadav while informing the media about the Cabinet decision. “Women above 30 years of age are at low risk of such exploitation,” he said. 

Around 244,000 women are working in Gulf states, according to a UN Women’s report of 2011, although only 56,000 women migrant workers are officially documented as per the record of Department of Foreign Employment. Most of the women currently working in Gulf countries are assumed to be aged between 18 to 25. Nepal lifted a ban — imposed in 1998 — on women going to Gulf countries in December 2010.