Thirty-nine stranded Nepalese migrant workers, most of them victims of trafficking and exploitation, were repatriated on Monday from Beirut, Lebanon with support from the International Organisation of Migrants (IOM) and Nepal´s embassy in Cairo, Egypt.

 

Upon a request for assistance, IOM had made available resources from its Humanitarian Assistance to Stranded Migrants fund and took care of all travel arrangements for 31 migrants who were identified as vulnerable and exploited and subsequently screened as victims of trafficking, according to a press statement issued by IOM-Nepal Office on Monday.

 

The remaining eight migrants, who did not fall within this category, were assisted directly by the Government of Nepal. They will now be sheltered in safe houses managed by Pourakhi and Prabasi Nepali Coordination Committee (PNCC), the local civil society organization working for victims of trafficking and migrants. The migrants will be provided some basic assistance in their long path to reintegration.

 

Thirty-nine Nepali domestic helps who were stranded in Lebanon and rescued with support from the International Organization for Migration arrive at the Tribhuvan International Airport on Monday evening. Most of them were trafficked to Lebanon. Bijay Rai/Republica

 

Earlier in the week, IOM was approached by the Nepal Embassy in Cairo, which also covers Lebanon, with a request for rescue and repatriation assistance for Nepalese migrants stranded in Lebanon.

 

Charge d´ affaires (CDA) Kaushal Kishor Ray recently visited Lebanon to monitor the working condition of nearly 7,000 Nepalese workers currently living in Lebanon. During his visit to Lebanon, Ray found that many Nepalese women migrants were working there as domestics.

 

Ray, with assistance from the Non-Resident Nepalese (NRN) committee, identified a significant number of Nepalese migrants living in dire conditions, overstaying their visas or as having been trafficked into Lebanon. "The Nepalese migrants had fled from their employers´ residences and were in hiding after having been mistreated, harassed and subjected to multiple forms of exploitation by their employers," said the statement.

 

Ray was able to collect data and documents concerning many of the migrants. Upon receiving the data and papers the Nepal embassy was able to issue travel documents for 45 migrants, including 42 females. They were immediately moved to a safe house operated by Caritas Lebanon before finally being flown to Kathmandu on Monday.