A Nepali woman has died in Kuwait while trying to escape confinement. The deceased, identified as Anita Shakya of Kathmandu, had been held captive by a manpower agent in a building at Hawally in the Arab state. 

 

It is learnt that human traffickers had taken her to Kuwait via India on October 16. She jumped off the window of the building where she was held captive while trying to escape. “Police have described Anita’s death as suicide,” Nepali Ambassador to Kuwait Yagya Bahadur Hamal said. “The Embassy of Nepal here has is working to send the body to Nepal.”

 

Though Nepal government has imposed a ban on women from going to Gulf countries to work, human traffickers have been using various channels to smuggle them into these nations. 

 

The embassy has not been able to take initiatives for action against the manpower company because the Kuwaiti law allows domestic workers in its country irrespective of the ban Nepal and some other countries have imposed on their citizens from working in the Arab state.  According to Ambassador Hamal, as many as four Nepali housemaids have died in the past one month. 

 

It is estimated that around 23,000 Nepali migrants work as housemaids in Kuwait.