KATHMANDU, JULY 30

Although several legal prerequisites have been stipulated to regulate foreign employment, irregularities have been found in the implementation of 'free visa and free ticket' provisions.

"The private sector has been permitted to run the foreign employment business while the government basically regulates the business. The key private actors include recruiting agencies, orientation centres, training institutes, medical institutes, insurance companies, financial institutes, and travel agencies.

Each of these actors has a role to play to ensure safe, orderly and exploitation-free foreign employment," says the Report on the Human Rights Situation of Migrant Workers recently published by the National Human Rights Commission.

According to the report, data received from Nepal Police suggest the emerging nature of trafficking and human smuggling in the context of foreign employment. An overwhelming majority of Nepali migrant workers are still engaged in low skilled and general labour jobs.

For example, the percentage of Nepali male migrant workers engaging in jobs of skill levels 1 or 2 ranges as high as 85 per cent in Malaysia, 76 per cent in Saudi Arabia, 71 per cent in UAE, 73 per cent in Oman and 67 per cent in Qatar to as low as 43 per cent in Kuwait.

Long working hours, low salary and non-payment have been widely reported. The total working hours (basic plus overtime) ranges from as low as 11 hours per day to as high as 14.5 hours per day in Gulf countries and Malaysia.

The actual monthly salary in Gulf countries and Malaysia is lower by one-fourth of the salary prescribed by the governments.

The five-yearly (2016/17- 2021/22) average number of complaints registered in the Department of Foreign Employment is 1,830 with 39 per cent settlement rate. The compensation provided by the DoFE was just 16 per cent of the claimed amount of about Rs 131.5 million in 2020-21 and 48 per cent in 2021-22.

The clearance rates of the cases by Foreign Employment Tribunal was 37 per cent in 2019-20 and 56 per cent in 2020-21.

According to the data obtained from Nepali Diplomatic Missions, the number of Nepali migrant workers in jail/ police custody has increased from an estimated figure of 800 in 2016 to 1,030 in 2021.

Among the 1,030 reported number of migrant workers in jail, only 7.2 per cent were provided with legal defence support by the Nepali embassies at abroad.

The complaints and grievances of migrant workers have also been filed in Nepali diplomatic missions. The total number of complaints registered in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, UAE, Qatar and Oman was 24,952 in 2020-21.

Over a period of past 12 years (from 2008-09 to 2020- 21), a total of 1,656 cases of disability have been reported in Foreign Employment Tribunal for the claim of compensation.

More than half of the total number of cases (695) was reported to have occurred due to workplace accidents.

Other causes of disability and injury were reported to be disease (36 per cent), fighting (8 per cent) and traffic accident (5 per cent).

Such a high proportion of disability due to workplace accident reflects the fact that occupational safety measures have rarely been provided to the migrant workers.

A version of this article appears in the print on July 31, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.