Nepali civil society — non-governmental organisations working for safe migration — have decided to raise issues related to migrant rights at United Nations High Level Dialogue on International Migration. It will be held in New York, on October 3-4. 

We will raise the issue of migrant rights as most destinations do not have basic rights for migrants, said president of International Institute for Human Rights, Environment and Development Gopal Krishna Shivakoti. “We will adopt human rights approach to secure migrants rights as major markets — Gulf countries — have not endorsed basic rights for foreign workers,” he said.

More than three million Nepalis are employed in foreign jobs and two-thirds of them are in Gulf countries — Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman — where migrant rights are not protected. “Due to this, our migrant workers have been suffering in those destinations,” said former labour attaché to Saudi Arabia Chandeshwor Acharya. The situation of domestic helps and migrants working in agriculture and livestock sectors is worse and they are often treated like slaves, he added. 

Human Rights Watch, in its 2011 report, had mentioned that jobs of housemaids in Gulf countries is ‘modern day slavery’ due to the rigid sponsorship system called Kafala . The Kafala system comes from the Bedouin custom of temporarily granting protection to strangers. But today, employers confiscate the passport of workers and exploit them under the shadow of the system. 

Therefore, the system needs to be abolished, said president of Pourakhi — a non-governmental organisation working for women migrants rights — Manju Gurung. “Women have been the ones suffering the most because the Kafala system is largely used to hire domestic workers.” 

About 244,000 Nepali women are believed to be working in foreign job markets and nearly 200,000 of them are in Gulf nations. “Most women migrant workers have been working as housemaids and they are not protected by the existing labour laws of the destinations,” said president of Pravasi Nepali Coordination Committee Mahendra Pandey. Therefore, the protection of fundamental migrant rights is our key agenda, he added. 

The Nepali civil society will lobby for it by collaborating with worker sending countries, he said. Organisations working on migrants issues have joined a network — Migrant Forum Asia — and the forum is planning to build consolidated efforts among worker sending Asian countries to highlight the issue at the UN forum. 

There are two mechanisms — Colombo Process and Abu Dhabi Dialogue — to harmonise migration policies and process at the government level in Asia. However, the mechanisms have not been effective due to the dominating role of destination countries, mostly from the Gulf region.

Published on: 26 April 2013 | The Himalayan Times