Roshan Sedhai

Despite the twofold increase in the number of youths going to Malaysia, the annual record of the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE) shows stagnation in the outflow of Nepali migrant workers to the Gulf. The oil-rich kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman—also the primary destinations for thousands of Nepali migrants—absorbed fewer Nepali workers than a year earlier despite infrastructural development and Qatar’s preparation for FIFA World 2022.

Some technical reasons aside, stakeholders point out the diminishing image of the Nepali community as a primary cause for the downfall. According to them, employers there now prefer Indonesian, Burmese, Pakistani, Philippine or Sri Lankan workers over Nepali citizens due to the latter’s increasing involvement in general strikes and workplace scuffles.

Apart from dozens of solitary protests for the increment of wage, other benefits and release from the job, Nepali workers of late were also found to have been involved in some major protests. In May, workers launched a general strike in Dubai’s largest construction firm, Arabtec. Similar protests in construction companies in Qatar and Saudi Arabia last year resulted in the deportation, imprisonment of several workers.

Although several factors including discrimination and oppression by the employer, dishonesty of recruitment agencies, workload and frustration also incite the workers to resort to take violent and oftentimes dangerous means, stakeholders see lack of proper pre-departure orientation as the main reason behind the increase in such acts.

Around 30 per cent of the total migrant workers, including those acquiring re-work approval, leave the country without a counselling certificate, according to DoFE officials. Despite a mandatory provision, officials claim a majority of 15,000 who head for foreign jobs each month leave the country by submitting fake certificates.

In the absence of basic information on socio-cultural and legal aspects of the destination countries, an increasing number of migrant workers are losing their lives in road accidents, unhealthy behaviour and scuffling with co-workers. Many others end up in prison. According to the Foreign Employment Promotion Board, 466 Nepali workers died in the Gulf and Malaysia in the fiscal year 2010-11. The number of death rised to 643 in 2011-12.

The government has made it mandatory for everyone to undergo a compulsory two-day orientation to obtain government approval for foreign employment. Currently, there are 88 authorised institutes in the valley that run orientation classes for foreign job seekers.

Divash Acharya, a spokesperson for the DoFE, said lack of proper orientation is the major reason behind such behaviours. He said various reasons including unscientific and unsuitable curriculum, Kathmandu-centered orientation centre and negligence of the manpower agencies, the orientation centre and workers have led the failure of orientation centre. “The problem is many migrant workers do not take orientation. And even those who do are not getting information that suits their foreign job,” said Acharya. “It would be too much to expect from a four-hour-long rudimentary course that workers get at odd times.”

Evidences suggest orientation centres, under the guidance of the governmental bodies, are using counselling as a means to react to the problems faced by workers in the destinations countries. The syllabus, apparently designed without proper research, is largely reactive. The content has been swelling with time in order to address anomalies in the foreign employment industry.

Until a year ago, instructors used to disseminate largely rudimentary and vague information that hardly carries anything more than basics of traffic rules, religions, culture, temperature and laws of the destination countries, contact numbers during the time of emergency.

However, in the aftermath of the growing workplace unrests, the government has instructed the orientation centres to caution the workers to refrain from undertaking protests and general strikes. Following a deadly attack on Nepali workers in Malaysia a few months ago, the concerned stakeholders have recently directed the instructors to urge the workers to shun fighting and drinking with coworkers and locals of the destinations countries. At least nine Nepalis were severely injured in the incident that took place in Johor Bahu, Malaysia.

The major problem, according to industry experts, stems from the provision to give pre-departure counselling in bulk irrespective of workers’ background, gender and destination countries. They say the government should categorise the syllabus according to workers’ gender, the nature of their job, destination countries, stressing for need-based counselling in their decision-making process.

Published on: 13 August 2013 | The Kathmandu Post