Activists in Nepal  have received many complaints from across the Gulf regionof maltreatment and exploitation of workers. Sujata Upreti, an official of the Pravasi Nepali Coordination Committee (PNCC), a Kathmandu-based labour rights group representing Nepalese migrant workers, has told an Asian news agency that many had been arrested and deported because they were found outside their labour camps or construction sites.

On average, the bodies of three Nepalese workers have been arriving at the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu every day for the last few years.

Many  workers complain of serious health issues caused by working long hours in extreme heat, she said. Migrant workers in most of the six Gulf Cooperation Council countries earn about $220 a month for working eight to 10 hours a day, six days a week. Most are able to send less than $200 to their families in Nepal each quarter, equivalent to just over $2 a day, she said.

Upreti said that workers are often given two contracts when they start their journeys — one to show to immigration officers in their destination countries and another, specifying a lower salary, to give to their employers. “The contracts are handed [to the migrant workers] a day, and sometimes even hours, before they leave the country,” said Upreti.

The PNCC said that the two to three complaints it receives every day come mostly from countries other than Qatar where South Asian migrant workers are common — particularly Malaysia and Saudi Arabia. Prabodh Kumar, from Nepal’s Mahottari District, was one of those who complained to the PNCC. Kumar had to return from Malaysia last month after his employer refused to pay his salary for two months.

Rajesh Bhandari, a lawyer at the Kathmandu-based People Forum for Human Rights, said that migrant workers’ earnings are almost always lower than promised. All the countries in the energy-rich GCC follow the “kafala” or sponsorship system, which forces foreign workers to seek their employer’s consent to change jobs or leave the country, Bhandari said. In Malaysia and elsewhere, migrant workers are excluded from the protection offered by domestic labour laws.

Activists say that destination countries turn a blind eye to migrant abuses because they are desperate to meet labour demands. But while destination countries generally deny reports of migrant worker abuse, some have taken steps to deal with the allegations.

In June, Malaysia’s Deputy Home Minister Nur Jazlan Mohamed admitted that illegal migrant workers had been exploited, but blamed the problem on local employers and suggested that it did not apply to legal migrants. Last year, Malaysia started a new online recruitment system for its 4 million-strong foreign workforce to reduce costs and delays. However, 300,000 Nepalese migrant workers asked the Nepalese government earlier this year to help them return home because of financial hardships.

Saudi Arabia made 38 amendments to its labour laws last year, raising fines for employers who confiscate migrant workers’ passports, delay salaries or fail to provide copies of contracts to employees. Kuwait also enacted two new laws on migrant domestic labour to deal with abuses. However, both countries retained the GCC’s sponsorship system, which rights groups say enables exploitation.

Nepalese activists said that migrant workers’ home countries were complicit in the problems they faced, arguing that home countries are unwilling to complain much as long as remittances continue to flow. Roughly 30% of Nepal’s gross domestic product is accounted for by remittances.

Kul Prasad Karki, chair of the PNCC, says the government of Nepal requires local manpower agencies to send workers only to companies registered in destination countries, which are often labour suppliers working on behalf of other employers. Sometimes, there is a chain of suppliers involved, which makes it difficult to pin down who is responsible for exploitation, he said.

There are more than 750 licensed manpower agencies in Nepal, and more than 60,000 agents, mostly unlicensed, Karki said. Birtamod, a small area in southeastern Jhapa district, hosts the offices of 300 manpower agencies, more than half of which are fraudulent, he said.

Bhandari said there was little or no effort to crack down on fraudulent agencies because of inefficiencies in the Nepalese government’s Department of Foreign Employment. A senior official, who asked not to be named, said that top officials at the DoFE admit privately that they are afraid of checking manpower agencies because their owners are powerful and influential.

Smritee Lama, an official of the Kathmandu-based Central Union of Painters, Plumbers, Electro and Construction Workers-Nepal, said there were also intermediaries between potential workers and local manpower agencies who were eager to bring workers to the numerous agencies in Kathmandu in return for commission payments.

Lama said workers are being charged recruitment fees of $950 to $1,900, although the Ministry of Labor and Employment last year put a cap of 10,000 Nepalese rupees ($93) on service charges. Workers sometimes take loans from private lenders at interest rates of up to 30% to pay service charges, and the debts can force them to remain in jobs even if they are exploited, Lama said. “Cheating begins at home,” she added.

Bal Bahadur Tamang, chairman of Sky Overseas Services, a manpower agency in Kathmandu, confirmed that agencies are charging more than $93, saying that the government should raise the cap to $250.

FIFA key to ending labour abuse in Qatar

FIFA has done little concrete to press the hosts of its showpiece sporting event in the past five years, said Amnesty International. Most recently, FIFA failed to deliver on its promise this May to investigate the detention of British and German journalists who tried to investigate migrant workers’ working and living conditions.

Amnesty International is calling on FIFA to press the Qatari authorities to implement and monitor reforms to protect migrant workers’ rights.

Human trafficking

Sarbendra Khanal, senior superintendent of police in Nepal’s Metropolitan Crime Division, said the activities of local agencies fell under the definition of human trafficking. “It’s a syndicated, organized, transnational crime,” he told the NAR. Khanal started a dedicated helpline for migrant workers last November, which he said was “receiving five to seven complaints a day.

Khanal said he had conducted raids on manpower agencies, but only after complaints reached his office. There is confusion over whether jurisdiction over such agencies lies with the police or the DoFE, he said, adding that agents exploited poverty in the country by luring workers with “bigger dreams.”

This Nepalese migrant worker returned a few years ago but is now looking after his brother, who suffered a cardiac arrest in Qatar in April 2016. (Photo by Vishal Arora)

Most cases related to migrant workers are directed to the DoFE under Nepal’s Foreign Employment Act of 2007, but the department uses its own discretion to determine whether agents are criminally liable, Bhandari said. The department typically facilitates mediation between victims and agents, as it did in Kumar’s case. The agent involved was arrested after local media reported on the case.

Upreti said that, on average, the bodies of three Nepalese workers have been arriving at the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu every day for the last few years.

“Most of the deaths are being reported in the age group of 20 to 30, mostly due to a heart attack but also kidney failure, because migrant workers do not drink enough water as they are not allowed bathroom breaks during work,” Upreti said, adding that many bodies have missing limbs, but the authorities do not conduct autopsies.

Colleagues of the deceased are the first to inform families, and sometimes it takes about a month or two for the body to reach Nepal in a decomposed state, Upreti said.

“I have heard there are about 250 Nepalese workers on ventilators in hospitals in various countries,” said Arun Kumar Koirala, an administrator at Helping Hands Community Hospital in Kathmandu. No hospital in Nepal is willing to bring such patients to the country, he said, adding that his hospital has dedicated two intensive care beds for migrant workers.

  exploitation, Gulf Cooperation Council, Human trafficking, labour, Pravasi Nepali Coordination Committee (PNCC), Prime Minister Modi, Qatar