As thousands of illegal male migrant workers utilise an opportunity to return home without being penalised under the mass amnesty scheme announced by Saudi Arabia, not a single Nepali woman has so far applied for the return.

The scheme that came into effect on May 10 also allows women working illegally as domestics to either change their status to legal or return home without being penalised. However, none of the 26,000 applicants seeking amnesty in the last three weeks are women, according to the Nepali Embassy in Riyadh.

According to the embassy’s rough estimation, Saudi Arabia is home to around 50,000 Nepali women, most of whom entered the country via illegal routes.

According to the embassy, various factors, including restricted work atmosphere, lack of knowledge about the legalisation scheme and unavailability of information could have barred these women from seeking amnesty .

“These women were smuggled into the country through illegal channels, mostly from Delhi and Mumbai airport. The embassy does not have any information on them,” Nepali Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Udaya Raj Pandey, told the Post. Sources said the embassy repeatedly failed to obtain records of Nepali women in the country from the Saudi immigration.

“We still have two more months to go (until July 3). Considering the condition they work in, it is hard to say if women will seek amnesty ,” said Pandey.

Under the kafala (sponsorship) system that governs the working lives of every foreigner in Saudi Arabia, workers cannot change jobs or leave the country without their employers’ permission. Laws also bar rights groups and the embassy from rescuing housemaids by entering houses of Saudi nationals.

These women come to the notice of the embassy only when they seek refuge or assistance after fleeing their employers. A few others seek the embassy’s help through the telephone, according to Pandey.

“On an average, the embassy receives 30 victimised women every month,” he said.

Pandey said they are trying to attract the attention of these women to the amnesty scheme by circulating the information through friends and family.

Records at the Nepali mission in Riyadh show over 600 women, all victims of physical, economic and sexual abuse, were sent back to Nepal in the past 22 months.

Published on: 31 May 2013 | The Kathmandu Post