The International Relations and Labour Committee of Parliament on Sunday instructed the government to book human traffickers responsible for sending domestic workers abroad.

A meeting of the committee instructed the government to punish the traffickers who are sending Nepali women to various Gulf countries on the pretext of maid jobs. Members of the panel recently visited four Nepali missions in the Gulf, interacted with the Nepali officials there and the Nepali migrant communities.

In cases of foreigners’ involvement in the crime, the panel urged the government to take diplomatic initiatives for pressing the host countries to punish the culprits according to their laws. Hundreds of stranded Nepali workers take shelter in the Nepali embassies. The Nepali missions recommend the names of such agents for punishment. The complaints of most domestic workers are about physical and sexual abuse, mental torture and non-payment of salary.

Prabhu Shah, chairman of the panel, said their problems had not been addressed properly. The panel also instructed the government to suspend the directors at the Department of Immigration who are charged with aiding the departures of Nepali women to the Gulf counties. The government had imposed a “temporary ban” on women leaving the country for housemaid jobs in July, 2014, citing the need for stronger “regulations to protect them from widespread abuse and exploitation” abroad.

The government had also made public commitments to signing pacts with the labour receiving countries to ensure women’s safety arguing that partial and blanket bans introduced half a dozen times had been ineffective.

Published on: 3 April 2017 | The Kathmandu Post