In Nepal, foreign employment is a perpetual source of alimentation for a good deal of people and a remunerative business for a multitude of recruitment agencies. Expanding opportunities abroad coupled with dearth of employment options at home, Nepal has experienced an aggressive upsurge in overseas labor migration, especially to the Gulf countries. As articulated by the Department of Foreign Employment, Nepal, 650,798 labor permits were granted or renewed till April 2023, with still three months in hand to end the Nepali financial year.

The pervasive labor drain in one hand has dwindled the human capital of the country, but in the other hand has augmented the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the form of remittances. As a matter of fact, remittance amounts to 22 percentage of nation's total GDP, at least two-third of which is sourced from expatriates in Gulf countries.

The cash influx has a focal role in curtailing the nation's trade deficit resulting from shrinking exports and bloating imports. Moreover, remittance has improved the living standard of thousands of migrant  families allowing them to afford nutritious diet, quality education, and standard healthcare opportunities. As Maniram Tharu, a security guard in Qatar, elatedly says "With the money I make here I am able to support my son to go to an English medium school. He wears a tie and well-polished shoes. This is a dream come true for me and my wife. "

Expat remittances has had multiplier effect and spurred comprehensive economic prosperity in Nepal. This can be explained on grounds of its intersection with other avenues of socio-economics like real estate, construction, trade, healthcare and education. To put it another way, remittances have ensured a win-win situation in contemporary Nepalese society due to the positive spinoffs on the nation’s economy and workers’ well-being.

Exploitation of workers 

However, the financial security afforded by foreign employment should not obscure the plight of laborers in the Gulf. The vicious cycle of abuse of immigrant workers actually begins in the home country itself due to 'worker's debt' caused by unethical recruitment practices.

In 2015, the Government of Nepal, established a ‘Free Visa Free Ticket' policy by stipulating a maximum charge of rupees 10,000 for workers migrating to the Gulf and Malaysia. However, Nepalese workers are forced to pay extra charges in addition to the government’s ceiling price for one or the other flimsy reasons.

Despite multiple agreements signed and commitments assured by the Nepalese government to limit unauthorized costs, the ground reality remains unchanged. The financial heft and the political clout of the recruitment agencies enable them to duck the law because of the high demand of workers in the Gulf that validates the risk-reward ratio for them.

"When I declined to pay the charges beyond the legal cap, agents told me that my job did not fall under 'free' policy, so I had no choice paying them. But even after paying, I did not receive any receipt as a proof of payment, rather they intimidated me of deportation if I complained to any legal body about how much I paid." said Ramesh Roka (name changed), a worker in Bahrain.

Undoubtedly, these low-income workers end up paying the illegitimate charges, selling their land and property or borrowing at high interest rates that eventually drown them in an ocean of debt. Similar stories reverberate  across the hills and plains of Nepal.

Rights violations of workers 

The predicament of Nepalese workers exacerbates as soon as they arrive in the Gulf because their personal and professional life gets subordinated to the 'Kafala' system, a sponsor-based employment. Under this system, the Gulf countries empower employers with sponsorship permits to bring in foreign workers, wherein the sponsors (Kafeel) reserve a significant hold over the employment relationship along with the laborer's immigration status in the country. The migrant workers do not possess the autonomy to quit their job or renew their residence permits, which falls in the jurisdiction of the sponsor. Nonetheless, it is the employee who gets penalized, if the employer fails to renew the permit.

The legal, humanitarian and the moral values of the of the Nepalese workers further get eroded due to delayand non-payment of wages in the workplace, obstacles to procure justice when their integrity is infringed, forbidding of trade-union rights and inability of the host country to implement labor laws and punish employers who abuse their workers.

Recent instances of human right violation of Nepalese workers in the Gulf have come to light after the World Cup 2022 in Qatar. According to Nepal's Labor Ministry, at least 2100 Nepalese have died in Qatar since 2010, the year when the country won the World Cup hosting rights. Multiple evidences suggest that the right to physical and mental healthcare facilities of these workers were denied in the host country. Consequently, they succumbed to myriad ailments, including premature heart attacks, chronic kidney failure and unexplained heat-related health problems. Moreover, around 200 Nepalese committed tragic suicide in Qatar in the last decade. Also, grievances of physical and sexual abuse by the employers were aired and those who protested were detained or deported without any legal hearings.

It is high time the Nepalese government strengthens its diplomatic muscle and stands up strongly for the legal rights of its citizens working overseas. Despite an agreement between Qatar and Nepal in 2005, followed by consensus between International Labor Organization (ILO) and Qatar in 2017, which focused on ensuring the rights of foreign workers, the results were patchy. Indeed the Gulf Cooperation Council has made some legislative efforts aimed at benefitting migrant workers, but legislative reforms do not spontaneously translate into action on the ground. There has to be significantly more ink on paper before the rights and security of Nepalese workers abroad can be safeguarded. 

(The author is a registered dental surgeon,author and researcher in Nepal currently pursuing Masters of Social Work at Western Sydney University,Australia. Views are personal. He can be contacted at ccr.bhatta@gmail.com)