While prioritising an insignificant number of migrants working in developed countries with relatively good wages and better track record of human rights, the government is playing down the serious exploitation of Gulf-based workers whose contribution has been fundamental in determining the country’s gross domestic product, said stakeholders.

 

In the system overshadowed by a corrupt state mechanism, dishonest agents and a lack of worker-friendly laws, Gulf-bound workers face the problems of fraud, high recruitment charge, low wages and deprivation of basic welfare.

 

Lack of training and orientation has pushed the workers to work under hazardous circumstances and yet with no certainty of compensation in cases of death and injury.

 

The state has been watching the misery of the workers. The government, which deemed it essential to send a secretary-led delegation to procure an annual demand of 300 caregivers, has not sent a minister-level or secretary-level delegation to most of the labour receiving countries for a long time.

There has been no diplomatic pursuit to compel host countries to sign labour pacts and memoranda of understanding, and to open up full-fledged missions in Nepal. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has allocated only 29 staffers in the Nepali missions in the GCC nations (Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the UAE) and Malaysia, where over 2 million Nepalis are working. The overall recruitment process, especially of female workers, looks more like legalised human trafficking.

 

While establishing a separate vibrant department for the Korea section, the DoFE head office remains largely understaffed and ill-resourced. Experts said that the government has been making judgmental errors and lacks theoretical clarity.

“The government has not taken any decision or reached any agreement at its own initiative. Every time it has been taking the proposal some other country floats. It lacks a firm stand,” said Ganesh Gurung, a foreign employment expert.

“Sending female workers through a state-to-state mechanism to countries such as Kuwait, Saudi Arabia or Qatar could be good. This can be done by devising a package with consent from the other party.”

Officials at the Ministry of Labour and Employment said the readiness of the recipient nation is equally important to send workers through a state-to-state mechanism. However, they added that the government has not approached any nation.

 

The recent agreement between Bangladesh and Malaysia to send workers through a state-to-state mechanism could be a precedent for Nepal to start such a process, said a ministry official.

 

Some stakeholders, however, have perceived the recent decision of the government to send Nepali workers to Israel through a government-to-government mechanism as an extension of the same hypocrisy that it showed while sending workers to South Korea a few years ago.

 

“Rather than monitoring and regulating the sector to clean up the mess, the government wants to make every lucrative market its own. Consider a secretary-led team going to procure a few hundred demands of workers. Why not turn the ministry and its department to a recruiting company?” asked Bal Bahadur Tamang, chairman of the Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies.  He said that the government will never start a G-to-G process in the Gulf because there is more problem and blame than money.

 

Experts said the attempt to curb anomalies or trace new markets is good but this should not be an excuse to ignore the majority. They asked the government to maintain a clear-cut vision and a balanced approach among the stakeholders.