As a new trend Nepali youth are migrating abroad for work at an alarming rate. Every day around two thousand workers are flying abroad and nearly an equal number cross the Indian border by land.

Government sources say that 2.5 million but independent researchers have estimated that more than five million Nepalis are currently working abroad. Trapped by poverty and unfavourable work environment in the country and lured by the big remittances, many youths leave the country imagining a paradise for easy and hefty earnings. Having almost no knowledge of the working conditions in host countries when they reach there, they encounter difficult work, hostility from employees and stern rules, but it is already too late for them. 

The conditions of females migrating are still more pathetic. Most females have little education, lack information, and have appalling family conditions. The most typical jobs for females abroad are housemaids or caretakers. For such jobs, places like Israel, EU countries and US are relatively better but female migrants to Gulf are exploited. Recently, the government has imposed a ban on females migrating to some Gulf states. In response, some feminist groups are protesting the ban. Individually anyone is entitled to work in any country without gender discrimination, but if some countries are dangerous for them, life threatening or unproductive, protection of its citizens is the prime duty of the government and, for this, it can also impose such bans. 

The law and order situations in most Arabian Gulf countries (Qatar, Saudi Arab, UAE, Kuwait, Lebanon Bahrain, Jordan and Oman) are pathetically worse. These countries lavishly earn from oil, and are massively investing in infrastructure for which they need cheap labor. According to government sources, about 1.2 million Nepalis are currently in these Gulf countries which account for 50 per cent of the total Nepali laborers abroad. Also, about 38 thousand Nepali females are working in the Gulf countries, mostly as housemaids who work in private houses. The houses of their employers have large compounds and tight security so that people inside are totally cut off from the outer world. The passports of all workers are seized from day one. Their voices are not heard even after being harassed, tortured or sexually abused. The media has recently interviewed the Gulf-returned women sheltered at Maiti Nepal who were sexually or physically abused. 

The situation of male workers is also no better in the Gulf. Most work there at the construction sites is in the open, where the temperature during the day crosses 50 degrees centigrade. The working environment is new, unfamiliar and risky. Many workers die from the harsh working environment, torture or have accidents. Quite a few are killed and thrown as unidentified to cover up the brutality of the employers. Some are lucky to escape or are rescued after disclosing to the media the dark side of remittance earnings. Government sources say in the last seven years more than three thousand Nepali laborers have died, of which only 577 were natural deaths. Even the females who died in Saudi Arab and Qatar reached 1537. Remittance earnings are a form of modern-day slavery, and it is barbaric in some notorious countries.

From the recipient side of remittance, if we ask why the families of the migrants turn a deaf ear even after hearing about such woes it could partially be poverty and debt, but it is also the greed for easy money they receive.Receiving easy money has created slackness in productivity among recipients. This was found by sociologists while studying the effect of remittance in several countries, which they terms ‘spoil effect’. Also from the economic prospective, it is totally wrong to believe that remittance is helping to move our national economy. Ninety per cent of the remittance earnings are spent on consumption of foreign goods and the rest are spent in unproductive sectors. Only the intermediate services, that also includes the government, are benefiting from this. 

Our industry, agriculture and service sectors are currently dwindling due to labor shortage. Meanwhile, a large number of youths are migrating abroad. To discourage labor migration we must expand the working environment in the home country by identifying and developing new industries. Vocational training in agriculture, animal husbandry or agro-business is more useful for rural youths than traditional education. If the government shifts one-fourth of its funds from traditional education to vocational trainings, the benefit will be four times what we are achieving now. The government should provide free training to rural women and vulnerable communities. Such trainings and consultation centers should be established in all districts. The government should mobilize local NGOs and finance, coordinate and monitor their activities. A large number of youth and foreign returnees have initiated and achieved good success in their agro-enterprises. The government should identify such entrepreneurs and utilize their potentiality, who can be the real gurus to inspire and share their knowledge with millions of goalless youths.

Published on: 17 June 2014 | Annapurna Post