Kathmandu. February 6:

Those who opt for foreign employment hope to earn a handsome salary, but a lot of them do not know what is in store for them.

Dev Lal Mukhiya from Dhanusha is one such example. He landed a job in Qatar in 2003. Hired as a mason by Qatar-based Gulf House of Trade and Cont. Co. W.L.L. Gulf Overseas Constultant, he was put to work in a coal mine without his consent. There he fractured his pelvis in an accident. A co-worker died.

“I spent almost two months in the hospital but I was denied medical reimbursement or compensation,” Mukhiya laments. More worrying is that he was forced by the employer to sign a paper to leave Qatar. It’s been four years since his return. He knocked the door of almost all authorities concerned, but in vain. His pelvis injury has healed but he cannot lift anything heavy. He spent a lot of time and money to get compensation from Devendra Bharkher, the middleman who had helped him migrate but couldn’t succeed. His effort to make Gulf Overseas Consultant — the main employing agency responsible — pay also proved futile as the proprietor of the company passed the buck on to the middleman, Bharkher. “If he was a real sufferer, why did not he come then? Why now? He is doing this maybe because my adversaries have incited him to do so,” Propreieter Nirmal Gurung of Gulf Overseas Consultant clarifies. “I have rescued many people who were stranded, there is no way I cannot help him,” he adds.

Every year hundreds of people who go abroad for work are trapped and denied food for long. Some get killed in road accidents, others are implicated in murder cases and other felonies.

DoLEP received a total of 38 complaints from jobseekers against different individuals and manpower agencies, seeking compensation of more than Rs 28.8 million from them. However, compensation of only Rs 1.9 million was given.

According to Madan Mahat, Vice President of Nepal Association for Foreign

Empoyment Agencies, use of unofficial channels to go abroad, ignorance of the traffic laws and other vital information about the employer country are the

main causes of danger and death. According to an unofficial report, 754 Nepali workers died abroad in 2007. Twenty- seven per cent of the deaths were caused by traffict accidents.

“Even Dolma Sherpa who is facing death penalty in Qatar went through an unofficial channel,” Mahat informs.

According to a yet to be released research conducted by People Forum in collaboration with FNIFEM, only 15 per cent of Nepali workers go abroad through manpower agencies. “This practice has to stop now if we want to lessen the untoward incidents faced by Nepali workers,” says he, adding the government of Nepal should strike a deal with India mandating them to stop Nepali workers from flying abroad without permission. According to Mahat, in 90 per cent of the cases foreign employment agencies of Nepal send workers through their counterparts in the recipient countries and therefore there is little they can do to ameliorate the plight of Nepali workes when their counterparts do not abide by the contract.

According to advocate Som Luintel, the newly enacted Foreign Employment Act, 2064, has stringent punishment for unscrupulous agencies and in case the employees are denied their promised salary, the recruiting agency is liable for that but the law has not mentioned any liability for labour-sending Nepali agencies in case of injury and death. In case of work injury, international conventions that guarantee every workers equal right in terms of work and terms on par with employer countries’ citizens can be invoked. But that applies only when the employer country has ratified UN conventions and those are part of their national laws.

“If we can intensify our resolve through intense lobbying, death penalty of Dolma Sherpa can be commuted but for that the government should work with AI, Confederation of Trade Union, International Migration Union and other agencies of the United Nations.” adds Luintel.

The number of Nepali workers leaving for overseas jobs increased by 24.68 per cent in the first six months of this fiscal year compared to the same period in the previous fiscal year. This growth has put Qatar on top of the list. On the other hand, the number of workers opting for Malaysia, the most preferred destination till last year, has nosedived to 23,632, which is a 35.50 per cent decline compared to the figures recorded in the same period last year. The UAE absorbed 9,172 more Nepali workers during the first half of the current fiscal year, an encouraging 83.90 per cent rise from last year.