The story of 45-year-old Ajabun Nesha Dewan drew the attention of the media and women’s rights activists when she returned to Kathmandu, Nepal from the Saudi city of Hofuf early this year. She had sustained spinal injuries and was suffering immense mental trauma after being thrown out of a second floor window by her landlady. She had gone to Saudi Arabia in the hope of a better life when her neighbour, a manpower company agent, promised her a job as a caretaker with a handsome salary.
Horrifying stories of life-threatening abuses against Nepali women migrant workers (NWMW) draw our quick attention whenever they pop up in the media. Undoubtedly, it is not safe for NWMW to seek foreign employment, particularly in the Gulf countries, as there have been numerous cases of physical exploitation and other abuse.
More than 100,000 NWMW are estimated to be currently working in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman in the Gulf. Given the reality of more than 800 Nepali hopefuls leaving the country for foreign employment every single day, the time is running out to take decisive steps towards protecting vulnerable women from possible exploitation.
A study commissioned by the department of foreign employment and undertaken by Nepal Development Study Corporation has reported that remittance contributes about one-fifth of Nepal’s gross domestic product, second only to the agriculture sector which chips in 32 per cent even with the engagement of three-quarters of the national population. The study has rightly suggested to the government to develop a special policy for women migrant workers to protect them from being exploited in the destination countries.
Yet the government seems to be exclusively concerned about generating more revenue from the lucrative foreign employment sector. For instance, the government raked in 1.13 billion rupees (US$15 million) from passport fees and airport taxes from migrant workers alone in the fiscal year 2008/09.
The work-related migration option not only provides employment opportunities even to otherwise unemployed women but also promotes their economic independence and helps enhance their social status, whose resultant contribution to sustaining families and providing safety nets back home has been enormous. The lifting of restrictions on women seeking foreign employment by the Foreign Employment Act 2007 has hence been a welcome move. But it will only be meaningful when efforts are made to ensure that the sought-after employment milieu is safe.
According to an estimate, more than 90 per cent of the Nepali migrant workers are employed in the informal sector, characterised by lack of any form of social protection. This makes them even more vulnerable to all sorts of exploitation by employers, agents or third parties on foreign soil. Experts have acknowledged that a significant number of people reach their foreign job destinations through illegal channels. Adversaries such as low pay, poor working conditions, document confiscation and physical abuse are common things for these workers who are “trafficked” without formal government-level agreements between the countries involved.
Citing a report published on May 26, 2010 in a Saudi daily Arab News, Human Rights Watch issued a press statement in New York in early June urging Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to jointly investigate the abuse and illicit trafficking of Nepali domestic workers. It was reported in the News that Nepali workers who agree to work in Kuwait are instead trafficked to Saudi Arabia against their will and abandoned there without any legal status. It is reported that there are currently 50,000 Nepali domestic workers in Saudi Arabia.
Government officials pass the blame to the 700-plus manpower companies operating in Nepal by pointing to their inability to promote the skills possessed by Nepali women and get them jobs in preferable labour destinations. For instance, even with the tremendous possibility of Nepali women being hired as domestic helpers, caregivers and staff nurses by Japanese employers, manpower agencies have not been able to exploit this opportunity. There also exists possibilities for Nepali aspirants as trainee workers in Japan.
Prompted by the numerous cases of women being abused and an increase in suicides among Nepali women workers in Lebanon, the government last year banned women from going there to work. As a right step towards finding a lasting solution to these issues and safeguarding the rights and welfare of 20,000 plus NWMW already employed in Lebanon, Nepal and Lebanon agreed to regularise the labour migration process on the sidelines of the 99th session of the International Labour Conference held in Geneva recently (June 2-18). It was decided that the Nepal government would prepare a draft memorandum of understanding and forward it to the Lebanese government for consideration and processing.
Given the official poverty incidence level of more than 32 per cent and unemployment surpassing 42 per cent, it would be absurd to expect that the daily exodus of 800 plus young people will start to decline anytime soon. But that does not justify the government’s gesture of hastily exploring new destinations to add to the list of 108 countries. Rather, it should focus on making the existing destinations safer for Nepali migrant workers.
Negotiating bilateral agreements with the destination countries in line with globally-recognised rights of working migrant women should be at the top of the government’s list of things to do. Empowering Nepali missions and consulates to take decisive steps towards upholding the rights of Nepali workers, instead of merely coordinating deportation of alleged workers or transportation of coffins of fellow country people, is another important task to be accomplished. That should be followed by revisiting national laws, policies and monitoring mechanisms in order to make them more effective in upholding the rights of migrant workers.
