Despite constitutional guarantees of exploitation free, safe, and well-managed foreign employment, laborers and migrant workers in Nepal are facing serious forms of exploitation and abuse including forced labor and human trafficking at one point or other of the migrant cycle. The Foreign Employment Act of Nepal provides for the right of migrant workers to receive special protection stating that, in the case of war, epidemic or natural disaster where Nepali workers have to be repatriated immediately, the government should make these arrangements through diplomatic missions or labor associates.
Unfortunately, the Nepalese migrant workers who were already vulnerable to exploitation are facing catastrophe due to COVID-19. Their employment, human rights, and health are at risk due to the current pandemic situation while incidents of stigmatization, discrimination, and mistreatment against them have notably increased.
Stating that a large number of Nepali migrant workers have lost their jobs due to COVID-19, a report (August 2020) released by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has warned of the negative impact on the long-term livelihoods of migrant workers and their families. Those who were not allowed to return home even after their contracts had expired were excluded from employment and received no earnings or allowances, the NHRC report lamented.
According to a survey carried out by Pravasi Nepali Coordination Committee, 21% of workers have lost their jobs whilst 17% of workers have confirmed they had not been paid. The Foreign Employment Board has estimated that a total of 470,000 workers are in the process of returning to Nepal, of which 127,000 are in the process of ‘immediate return’ and 280,000 will return to Nepal after losing their jobs due to the COVID-19.
A report (June 2020) by the International Labor Organization (ILO) states that an estimated 1.7 million daily wage workers in Nepal and another million workers on temporary contracts have been significantly impacted by COVID-19. The ILO report illustrates that in the absence of sustainable wages and social security protection mechanisms, daily wage laborers and informal sector workers have been rendered the most vulnerable to the socio-economic impact of the pandemic.
Furthermore, the World Bank Report (2020) has estimated that remittances to Nepal are projected to decline by 14% in 2020 and are likely to remain subdued in 2021 due to COVID-19. In Nepal, remittances constitute over a quarter of its gross domestic product.
- Although 500,000 Nepalese join Nepal’s labor market every year, in the absence of proper employment in the country, most of these have been forced to make foreign employment an alternative.
- According to the Department of Foreign Employment, a total of 5,567,562 people have been granted labor permits to join foreign employment in the last 25 years
- In the last fiscal year, a total of 368,433 people have obtained labor permits of which 340,000 were males and 28,433 were females.
- Although the Nepalese seek employment in many countries, more than 95% of work permits have been issued for just seven countries that include Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, and Malaysia.
- According to the Nepal Labor Force Survey, 3.2 million Nepalese who went abroad for employment, study, or other purposes are currently out of the country.
- The World Bank states that Nepal stands in the third position among countries receiving the highest amount of remittances and almost half of households have a family member abroad or one who has returned from abroad.
Highlighting that there is a lack of proper and decent jobs in the country, Rameshwar Nepal, South Asia Director at Equidem Research, said that due to the limited demand for employees, the lack of a competitive labor market, the limited capacity of the private sector with regard to employing individuals and the inadequate salary scale for the survival of an individual or his/her dependent, hundreds of thousands of Nepalese are forced to choose the option of foreign employment. In order to create an enabling working environment for the labor force, Nepal has to review its entire existing employment program, modify its plans based on lesson learned from past experiences and commercialize and modernize agriculture, he added.
NHRC has recommended identifying those workers and their families who have lost their employment and income due to the impact of COVID-19 and to ensure their easy access to special financial relief and rehabilitation programs.
