Thirty-six-year-old Santa Bahadur Shahi, a Ghorahi Sub-metropolitan City, Ward-15 resident, went to Malaysia for foreign employment in 2020. The company he was working for provided perks and benefits as per his expectations. However, as time passed by the company started treating him differently.  Under various pretexts, the company started giving him trouble as his visa expiration date neared. There was a delay in giving salary, and they behaved carelessly when it came to his food and accommodation.

He used to console himself by telling himself that life in a foreign land was meant to be hard. Santa Bahadur encountered a very big hassle when his visa expired. He had gone to Malaysia on a three-year labor visa. “Even though my visa had expired, the company did not stop from assigning me work,” he shares. Though it was time for me to return home, the company refused to let me return.”

Not only did the company refuse to allow Santa to return home, it also started delaying in providing him his salary, and at times, they would make life terrible by not allowing him to work properly. Instead of providing facilities, the company started giving Santa physical and mental problems. He began getting desperate to return to Nepal. The company did not even offer him an ‘exit visa’ to facilitate his return to Nepal. He not being allowed to return home, and on top of that, he was exploited at the workplace. “I used to be heartbroken when I used to see poor and disadvantaged people like me being exploited at work,” he says, “The company utilized our labor in a wrong way for its selfish needs.”

Santa Bahadur faced various problems for a long time. Later, the pain became unbearable. He felt it was time to let his family know about his ordeal. He shared his plight with his wife, Ramita Shahi, who was in Dang. Ramita was heartbroken to hear about her husband's problems in a foreign nation. She immediately thought of doing something regarding the issue. She contacted the safe immigration facility at the District Administration Office in Dang. Ramita gave details about her husband's problems at his workplace in Malaysia. The information center relayed Santa’s plight to the Pravasi Nepali Coordination Committee (PNCC). A PNCC representative and a Nepali mission team in Malaysia got in touch with the company. They held talks, and the problem was soon resolved. The company provided the salary and benefits that were due to Santa Bahadur Shahi. It also gave him an exit visa to return to Nepal.

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To manage the financial difficulties that her family was facing, Shova Devi Baniya decided to go abroad for foreign employment. A resident of Ghorahi Sub-metropolitan City, Ward-10, Narayanpur, Baniya spoke to a local agent about her plan. Even though she was unskilled, the agent assured her that he would send her to a good company in Kuwait. Baniya believed what the agent had told her and made all the documents necessary for foreign employment. She moved forward with the process of going abroad. Finally, she bid adieu to her family and got on a plane for her dream job. However, the flight she boarded stopped in the UAE. It was not only the plane halted in UAE, even Shiva Devi Baniya’s journey towards foreign employment came to a stop there. Her dream of getting rid of her family’s financial problems shattered.

 “I was totally lost and didn’t know where to go,” she says. “I was completely shattered.” She somehow managed to contact the agent and explained about her misery. The agent made an arrangement for Baniya to stay in a place in the UAE where a person he knew was staying. However, neither did the agent provide her with any work nor did he send her to another country for employment. “I spent two harrowing months there,” she says.

When she realized there was nothing else she could do, she began sharing her problem with everyone she met. She sought their help. With the help of a media person, her concerns were relayed to the information center that was being operated by Ghorahi Sub-metropolitan City at the District Administration Office, Ghorahi. The information center contacted the Pravasi Nepali Coordination Committee (PNCC). Under pressure from PNCC and Nepali authorities, the agent paid for the expenses for Baniya to return to Nepal. The Nepali diplomatic mission helped her make her documents. A week after her complaint was lodged at the information center, Baniya returned home.

The trend of going abroad

Around 2,500 youths—both male and female—leave the country every day for foreign employment with the expectation of getting a better job and pay. 

According to statistics from the National Census 2021, 2,190,592 Nepali citizens have left the country. A majority of them have gone abroad either for employment or for education. Of the total number of people who have left the country, 1,799,675 are male, and 390,917 are female.

In fiscal year 2021/22, the inflow of remittances stood at Rs 1,007.31 billion. The government of Nepal officially allows Nepalis to seek institutional foreign employment in  111 countries. However, in recent times, the government has banned people from going to Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya for foreign employment. Meanwhile, the government has allowed people to go for foreign employment on an individual basis to 178 nations.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic the number of people taking labor permit to go for foreign employment had declined in fiscal year 2021/22, however in recent times the number of people taking such permits is the same as it was prior to the pandemic. During the pandemic, it had dropped to 166,698, but in fiscal 2022/23, it dramatically went up to 630,097. In fiscal 2015/16, the number of people going abroad for employment had stood at 641,000, while the figure stood at 643,000 in fiscal 2016/17. In Shrawan of the previous fiscal year, 25,428 people had taken labor permits, whereas in Shrawan of the current fiscal the number of people who have taken labor permits increased to 63,042.

During COVID-19, Malaysia did not take in any workers for two years. Recently, Malaysia has started accepting Nepali workers again. As Malaysia has opened up for foreign employment, the number of people going to the destination is rising each day. Experts believe that the number of workers going to Malaysia will further increase in the coming days. In July/August of the current fiscal year 2023/24, the most labor permits were issued for Malaysia. A total of 24,484 such permits were issued for Malaysia.

Similarly, 12,570 labor permits were issued for Qatar, 8,140 for the United Arab Emirates, 6,705 for Saudi Arabia, and 4,284 for Kuwait. These five countries alone account for 90% of the labor permits being issued. As per data, 10% of the people obtaining labor permits are female. Data also reveals that the most number of people going for foreign employment are from Dhanusha, Siraha, Mahottari, Jhapa and Morang. Meanwhile, the data shows that two-thirds of those seeking foreign employment are unskilled workers.

Since there are very few job opportunities in Nepal, people are compelled to take loans at exorbitant interest rates and sell their property to go abroad for employment. Likewise, due to a lack of knowledge about foreign employment and labor permits, there are many people who get swindled in the process. There are also many who have faced problems in their respective destinations due to a lack of skills or because they have no knowledge of the native language.  Similarly, there are many people who go abroad with high expectations of a good job and pay but come back home disillusioned. People who have gone abroad without skills face many problems. Many are living a difficult life abroad because they did not go through a reliable agent or manpower company and were not provided the work, position or pay initially pledged to them.

Bargaining upon death

A youth from Dang, Banglachuli, who had gone to Croatia for foreign employment, died in September 2021. Though he had gone for foreign employment after obtaining a labor permit, his family faced immense hurdles to get his body back home. An agent started bargaining with the family that if he were paid Rs 25 lakhs, he would help bring the body of the deceased back home. When the family learned about SaMi, they approached the project officials. Basanta Pun, Program Manager of SaMi, mentions that the project helped bring back the youth’s body free of cost. “Since that agent is a relative of the deceased, that person’s identity has not been closed,” she explains, “However, through SaMi’s efforts, the youth’s body was brought home.”

District President of Migrants Rights Protection Forum, Hemraj Budhathoki, says the organization has been working at the grassroots level. He mentions that the agents have recently been creating problems in their work. 83 problems related to foreign employment have been recorded, out of which 21 have been resolved in the last year.

Budhathoki mentions that among these recorded cases, most deal with fraudulent activities. “The police have also been extending help to us,” he shares. “Police have in recent times been apprehending people who commit fraud in the name of foreign employment.”

Number of people going abroad in Dang increases

The number of youths from Dang going abroad for studies has increased significantly in recent years. According to data, the number of youths going abroad for studies is similar to the number going abroad for employment.

Since August 2022, 4,718 youths who want to go abroad for studies have obtained passports from the District Administration Office (DAO) in Dang, among which 3,101 were male and 1,617 were female. Similarly, the DAO record shows that 5,621 youths obtained passports to go for foreign employment, out of which 4,682 were male and 939 were female. The number of women wanting to go abroad for studies is higher by 678 than those wanting to go for foreign employment.

41 lose their life in a year

Last year, a total of 41 people from Dang who had gone for foreign employment lost their lives. Fifteen people from Tulsipur died while in foreign employment. Similarly, 12 from Ghorahi, five from Babai Rural Municipality, three from Lamahi, and one each from Rapti, Gadwa, Shantinagar and Dangisharan lost their lives. Two people were not from Dang but since their deaths were reported in the district the total death toll came to 41. Nepalis have been dying while abroad due to various reasons like cardiac arrest, suicide and accidents.

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