Kathmandu, April 11

In the last eight months of the current financial year, as many as 540,000 Nepalis have migrated abroad for employment purposes.

While labour migration and the remittance sent by migrant workers play a major role in the country's economy, experts have flagged the emerging cases of mental and psychosocial health issues among migrant workers and their families living in Nepal as a result of long periods of separation, health problems of the migrant workers, communication gaps, among other factors.

While there is no clear data on the number of family members of migrant workers suffering from psychosocial issues, a study titled 'Mental Health Problems in Nepali Migrant Workers and their Families' suggests the number could be in thousands.

The study conducted on 652family members of migrant workers living in the country found that 58 per cent showed signs of anxiety, 25 per cent had depression, seven per cent expressed suicidal tendencies or had attempted suicide, two per cent had severe mental illness, and eight per cent suffered from issues categorised as others. More than 90 per cent of the participants in the study were females.

Along with the migrant workers themselves, their family members also undergo continuous stress from the start of the documentation process for employment abroad and even after reaching their destination countries, which affect their mental and psychosocial health, according to Ram Thapa, a psychosocial counsellor, and resident of Dhading.

'In many cases, parents are stressed over the separation from their children who opt for foreign employment, their working situation, and their mental and physical well-being. In some cases, parents ponder if they will be able to see their children again, leading to overthinking, hypertension, and mental stress,' he said.

Similarly, Smriti Ghimire, psychologist and project coordinator for the Centre for Mental Health and Counselling- Nepal, shared that a significant number of family members of migrant workers are at risk of suicide or have attempted suicide.

'In Nepal, where a majority of men leave for foreign employment, a woman is left to raise their children as a single parent while also attending to her inlaws, households and financial responsibilities. This also accumulates stress over time and affects the mental and psychosocial health of a migrant worker's family members back home,' she explained.

To make matters worse, the country lacks trained mental health professionals to address related issues in all 753 local levels of the country. While programmes are held in multiple localities to spread awareness and provide counselling to family members of migrant workers, many local levels are still deprived of access to mental health services.

'Introducing more awareness programmes in all local levels should be the priority to eradicate the stigmas surrounding mental health issues,' Ghimire added.

Moreover, in case of death of a migrant worker abroad, it gravely affects the mental and psychosocial health of the family members left behind, especially women.

The stress of having to oversee the financial burdens and the responsibility of their children and households add to the further mental health issues among them, Bimala Shrestha, counsellor and resident of Nawalpur shared.

As per the Nepal Labour Migration Report 2022 published by the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security (MoLESS), a total of 10,666 Nepali migrant workers have died abroad in between 2008-09 and 2021-22.Among them, 1,187 migrant workers had committed suicide.

Poor mental and psychosocial health of Nepali migrant workers can be attributed to the high expectations of families back home, unfair treatment at work, poor living conditions, loneliness, among others including lack of proper access to mental health services.

Due to these reasons, the number of migrant workers choosing to take their life seems to be on the rise. In the fiscal year 2019-20 to 2020-21, 80 cases related to suicide were recorded in Malaysia; 78 in Saudi Arabia; 58 in UAE; 50 in Qatar; 13 in Kuwait; five in Bahrain; four in South Korea, and one in Oman.

A version of this article appears in the print on April 12, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.