20 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK

Hard labour

Nepal is bankrupt, the only thing keeping the economy afloat is remittances. Defying all projections, overseas contract workers sent home $8 billion last fiscal year, reaffirming their significance. 

Nepal’s remittance-to-GDP equivalence is highest in Asia at 28% but migrant workers leaving for destination countries are cheated every step of the way, by moneylenders, agents and even the government, instead of being facilitated in their journey.  

Only recently, outgoing workers were forced to wait for up to 28 hours at Teku Hospital just for a rubber-stamped piece of paper to certify they have been vaccinated. The letter didn’t even have a QR code.  

Neglect of the migrant workers is nothing new, it was the same two decades ago. In fact, this report from Nepali Times 20 years ago this week is a tragic reminder that the most essential needs of the people have been ignored all along: food, health care, education, irrigation and employment, to name a few. 

Excerpts from issue #60 14-20 September 2001:

Nepal earns a huge amount in the form of remittances from citizens working abroad, but there are also thousands of Nepalis cheated of their inheritance and land-holdings, lured by the prospect of employment overseas. An investigation by Himal Khabarpatrika last year estimated that remittances from abroad earn Nepal about Rs75 billion annually-more than tourism, foreign aid and exports put together. 

People seeking foreign employment can be cheated twice-within the country and when they reach their destination. The deception begins as soon as a person indicates his interest in foreign employment. The village moneylender is often the first to benefit, as employment agencies require applicants to pay the entire amount involved in seeking and securing a job in one go, before the process is started. Applicants want the money desperately, and moneylenders in the informal sector will give it to them-often at 60% per annum. And, since the supply of workers is contracted and sub-contracted in so many layers, from overseas agencies to Nepali agency to smaller agencies to individual brokers in the countryside, a worker could end up paying double the actual cost of the process. At every layer, the agencies add on a comfortable margin for themselves.  

 The other trap-the bigger one-for workers abroad is the difference between what the employment agencies promise and the actual work conditions they are faced with. Worried and depressed by the prospect of losing their investment and the loss of face, these youths often work in inhuman conditions, just to be able to return having at least broken even. Perhaps because of this, the death rate among the Nepali workers in the Gulf is shockingly high. 

 From archives material of Nepali Times of the past 20 years, site search: www.nepalitimes.com

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