If there is one proof of the fecklessness of the Nepali state in the past 25 years, it is that governments have forced a whole generation of citizens to seek jobs abroad.
To be sure, migration has been a part of Nepali life ever since the first recruits joined the East India Company’s army even while Nepal was battling the British in Kumaon. Nepalis flocked to Gorakhpur when they heard the indentured labourers were needed for colonial sugar plantations in Fiji and the West Indies. In the last century, indebted subsistence farmers left for Sikkim, Assam and Bhutan by the thousands.
Outmigration always served as a safety valve – a much easier option than attracting investment so jobs were created at home. The war increased this exodus, people were leaving not just for employment, but also security. Nepal became the country with the highest proportion of its GDP worth coming from remittances — much higher than labour-exporting countries like Philippines, Bangladesh and even Haiti.
A remittance-based economy was always been threatened by geopolitical tension, the price of oil, xenophobia, and trends in the global economy. After the two Iraq wars, during the Saudi-UAE blockade of Qatar and more recently after tensions flared between Iran and the US the future looked shaky.
The uncertainties have added to the vulnerability of Nepalis already fleeing injustice, inequality and structural discrimination at home. But even during the process of leaving they are extorted by ruthless middlemen, airport officials, recruitment agencies and host country governments.
All these risk have converged during the coronavirus crisis. There is no way Nepal can bring back all 4 million of its citizens working abroad, the government has been overwhelmed by even the 250,000 who have returned or want to do so.
Repatriation is difficult because there is a huge discrepancy between those who want to come home and the limited numbers of flights available. The government has made guidelines on who gets to go first, it has developed an arrival protocol.
But there are already gaping holes in this plan Those who can pull strings have got on the first flights. The Nepal Airlines Airbus that came back on Tuesday night from Canberra with 11 passengers was mainly carrying government officials and families stranded in Australia.
The 3,500 Nepali undocumented workers in Kuwait and the 17,000 in UAE who were supposed to be on the priority list are following all this on social media and are outraged.
In such a huge undertaking, lapses were to be expected. Putting a scale to vulnerability will by definition be subjective, but why were not the embassies and the government in Kathmandu following their own criteria? This has created an impression of the government bungling systematic repatriation just like it has bungled everything else.
Another major flaw in the process is that the workers are required to bear the cost of tickets themselves. As our report shows, many have been stranded for over two months in camps, and exhausted all their savings on room and food, there is no way they can afford the inflated fares on chartered flights.
As one dejected Nepali worker in Dubai told our reporter over the phone after hearing of the Sharjah flight: “The only consolation I can take from this is that at least some Nepalis got to go home.” Pregnant women in UAE were assured by the embassy they were on the priority list, but now have to wait some more because two UAE security companies jumped the queue.
The other government rule required everyone to have a COVID-19 negative medical certificate before boarding. None of those who have arrived so far did these tests. And where are the stranded workers in Kuwait and UAE going to go now to get tested?
Nepali embassies abroad have stopped answering calls. They also seem to be over-ruled by uncoordinated decisions by ministries in Kathmandu. The COVID-19 repatriation challenge exposes all the chronic weaknesses in governance in Nepal and magnifies them: corruption, ad hocism, lack of coordination and communication, neglect of the weakest and poorest
The least the government can do now is communicate transparently about the flight schedules, who will be on them, how to get tickets at the designated price, support for those who cannot afford it, and not do any more hanky panky with passenger manifests. Returnees have been through a lot – they should not be given more hardship and grief when they arrive.
The crisis also provides an opportunity for the government to look at ways to provide employment at home for as many returnees as possible. But that is for later. First things first.
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