Chandan Kumar Mandal

The last couple of months had been tough for Bishnu Prasad Neyopane. He, along with his wife Chandrakala, had migrated to Kuwait in April 2017 for work and their tenure was coming to an end. But two months before the end of their contract in July, the employer demanded an advance for renewing their visa, threatening to send them home if they failed to comply.

They refused to pay and were subsequently fired. It was at this time that Neyopane’s health started to worsen. The couple had little money to pay for his medical bills and were looking to return home. On May 6, while waiting for the lockdown in Nepal to be lifted so they could come home, Neyopane died. 

The cause of death of the 41-year-old from Kapilvastu was listed as “a heart attack”.

Neyopane and 11 other Nepali workers had been facing difficulties after their employer refused to renew their working visas. According to Shankar Bhattarai, a relative of the deceased, they had been out of work for two months, and the company had also cancelled their visas.

“How could they pay 450 Kuwaiti Dinar when they were only earning around 100KD [approximately Rs39,093]?” said Bhattarai. “Since the problem was with the employer, they wanted to return home but were unable to because of the lockdown in Nepal.”

Neyopane did his best to return home.

In a handwritten letter with the signatures of 11 other stranded workers, Neyopane narrated how the employer had made them sign a visa cancellation paper and had left them without jobs or pay for 50 days.

“Before we could cancel our visa and return home, the lockdown was enforced. We could not be Nepali or Kuwaiti,” reads the letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Post. “Other workers are getting a basic salary, but we have been deprived of the income. We have run out of the money that we saved.”

In conversation with a fellow Nepali worker, which was shared on social media, Neyopane is seen pleading for help. He informs about 12 Nepali workers stranded in two separate camps—Farwaniya and Mahboula—in Kuwait.

“Because of the lockdown, I am neither getting a job here nor can I go back to Nepal when I try to leave,” Neyopane said in a Messenger conversation. “We’ve been stranded for two months now. Our pockets are empty. I don’t know what to do now. I have informed the Nepal embassy several times. My life is in danger now.”

Nepal has been under a complete lockdown for nearly two months now, with its borders sealed and all international flights suspended. Nepali workers in foreign lands have lost jobs and are fast running out of money. But they have no option other than to live in squalid conditions in crowded rooms where the threat of infection is high. In such conditions, Nepalis workers have begun to die.

According to the Non-Resident Nepali Association, at least 96 Nepalis have died in foreign countries due to Covid-19.

Last month, a 40-year-old Nepali worker who tested positive for Covid-19 committed suicide in Turkey after jumping from the second floor of the hospital.

Neyopane was an otherwise healthy person but his health had deteriorated in the last few months, according to Bhattarai. He would complain of low blood pressure, but he had been taking care of himself.

“He did not have a single bad habit. He never smoked or drank. He would regularly do yoga and was a spiritual man,” said Bhattarai. “He was tense following the dispute with the employer. He had resigned and was counting the days for flights to resume so that he could return home.”

Like Neyopane, thousands of Nepali migrant workers are languishing in Kuwait, like in most other countries in the Persian Gulf. Ushered into camps without jobs or proper food has left them vulnerable not just to Covid-19 but to other diseases too.

Nearly 3,500 undocumented Nepali workers and those who have overstayed their visas have applied to return home, utilising a general amnesty offered by the Kuwaiti government. They await the Nepal government’s decision to come home.

Calls for repatriating migrant workers, especially those requiring immediate help, have gotten louder in recent weeks. Last week, a motion of public importance was registered in Parliament to bring Nepali workers back from Covid-19 hotspots.

According to Suraj Maskey, a migrant worker in Kuwait, the lockdown is taking its toll on their mental health.

“The uncertainty is leading Nepalis to depression. This incident [Neyopane’s death] happened due to the negligence of the Nepal government and the Nepali Embassy in Kuwait,” Maskey, who is also an honorary member of the Non-Resident Nepali Association International Coordination Council, told the Post over the phone from Kuwait City. “They had long been planning to return home, but they could not travel due to the lockdown. If they were home, perhaps Neyopane would have survived.”

Neyopane’s body remains in the hospital and his family hopes they will be able to bring his mortal remains home for his final rites. Since the lockdown and the suspension of international flights, bodies of dozens of migrant workers have remained in the countries where they were working. 

“He could not return alive,” said Bhattarai. “We hope at least the government makes arrangements so that we can perform his final rites here in Nepal.”

But Bhattarai holds the Nepal government accountable for the death of his relative.

“If only there had been no lockdown, or if the government had arranged to bring workers home, he might have survived,” said Bhattarai. “He would’ve gotten treatment in Nepal.”

Published on: 17 May 2020 | The Kathmandu Post