Migrant workers

One would think the four million overseas Nepalis who prop up the home economy with their remittances equivalent to one-third of our GDP would be treated as national heroes. But instead of finding them good, well-paying jobs, simplifying and streamlining procedures and cracking down on those who cheat them, the workers are hounded and tricked by fellow Nepalis every step of the way before suffering more exploitation and abuse in their destination countries.

This was the story then, this is the story now. Excerpt of the report published 20 years ago this week on issue #196 14-20 May 2004:

On 25 April, Birman was flying off to Doha without the necessary work permit from the Department of Labour. “We bribed the immigration official with Rs 5,000 to get him through, so we don’t expect any problem,” said Birman’s friend, Ramesh Bhatta.

The middlemen that fixed Birman’s papers promised that he will earn Rs 15,000 a month in Qatar. Even if he gets the full amount, it will take him a year to pay back the Nepali labour agency’s cut for finding him the job. He owes loan sharks in his village Rs 150,000. Birman managed to get through Kathmandu immigration with his forged permit, but his family hasn’t heard from him yet.

Bhakta Bhattarai from Dhankuta flew to Dubai last July on the assurance of a labour agency, Kasturi Overseas, that he had a hotel job with Rs 14,000 a month waiting for him. Bhakta paid Gopal Adhikari, an agency worker, Rs 100,000, but after he arrived in Dubai he found that he had been given a visitor visa instead of a work visa that allowed him to be legally employed. He had to return. Gopal Adhikari has disappeared.

Stories like these are common among the tens of thousands of Nepali overseas workers. They sell off ancestral property to pay labour agencies in Kathmandu, and often end up being cheated, almost never getting the salary promised, spend up to a year in as a bonded labourer to pay off the agent and are harassed by immigration officials at the airport in Kathmandu while leaving or returning.

For archived material of Nepali Times of the past 20 years, site search: nepalitimes.com