Even as it seeks to open three more countries for housemaids in near future after having opened four countries last year, the government has taken virtually no initiative to ease Nepali women´s entry into Hong Kong -- where working condition for domestic helps is believed to be better than any other Gulf country.

It has been over five years since the Hong Kong government stopped issuing employment visas to Nepali workers, but the government has not held any formal talks, barring a couple of meetings on the sidelines of visits with other objectives, with Hong Kong to have the ban on Nepali workers, albeit not announced formally, lifted.

In 2009, a team of Nepali officials led by joint secretary Purna Chandra Bhattarai, now director general (DG) of the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE), asked the Hong Kong officials to remove the ban. In a recent stopover in Hong Kong, Foreign Minister Narayankaji Shrestha also made it a point. However, none of the visits was exclusively intended for lobbying with the Hong Kong government to remove the ban.

“We want the Nepal government to take up this issue seriously,” said Ganesh Gurung, president of Far East Oversees Nepalese Association (FEONA). “If the ban is lifted, hundreds of Nepali women, who otherwise have to go to gulf countries as domestic workers, can go to Hong Kong. As human rights of domestic help are better protected in Hong Kong, it would be wise for the Nepal government to encourage Nepali women to go there instead of elsewhere.”

The Hong Kong government had stopped issuing employment visas to Nepali workers in 2005 for various reasons ranging from increased cases of forged documents to the excessive inflow of Nepali refugees.

“Many of the reasons behind the ban were interlinked with the ongoing war in Nepal,” said Madhav Khanal, a member of the FEONA. “As the war is over by now, it could be an appropriate time for the Hong Kong government to review its decision. But, for this to happen, the Nepal government has to seriously lobby with the Hong Kong government.”

Currently, about 32,000 Nepalis, all of them Hong Kong ID holders, are in Hong Kong. Besides, there are 488 Nepali housemaids who landed in Hong Kong before the ban. “In 2005, there were 2,300 Nepali housemaids in Hong Kong,” says Khanal. “After the ban came into effect, no Nepali women entered Hong Kong. And, even those who were already there started returning after their terms expired.”

Last year, the Nepal government had opened four Gulf countries -- Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait and Qatar -- for Nepali women to work there as domestic help. Nepal is preparing to sign Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) with Malaysia, Lebanon and Jordon to open these countries as new destinations for Nepali housemaids.

Published on: 25 December 2011 | Republica