Five Nepalis missing in war-torn Lebanon

At least five Nepalis including two women have gone missing from the Lebanese capital of Beirut where a deadly fighting has been raging for the past ten days claiming the lives of 80 people so far and rendering many homeless, a leading national daily reported.

Deependra Uprety, a member of International Coordination Committee of Non-Residential Nepali Association (NRNA) Lebanon chapter, told Kantipur Daily that 90 percent among the 9 thousand or so Nepalis residing in Lebanon often employed as domestic help have been affected by the internal conflict that has plagued the country since decades.

Uprety himself had been held captive by the armed group Hizbollah in a city east of Beirut last Sunday and only released 45 minutes earlier. He said that since Saturday his 56-year old father Punya Prasad Uprety and relatives Gayatra Bhandari, Sita Bhandari, Yam Shahi and DB Shah have gone out of contact. He said he doesn't know about their whereabouts or condition.

"I have informed about the situation here to the headquarters of Non-Residential Nepali Association, foreign ministry and Nepali mission in Egypt’s capital Cairo," Uprety told Kantipur daily over phone.

According to him, Nepali nationals have also been ordered to empty the place where they had been taking refuge for the past few days. The shelter was arranged by NRNA Lebanon Chapter for Nepalis nationals affected by the conflict with the help of Human Rights Watch this week.

He said 90 percent of Nepalis in Lebanon are young women who are employed mostly in household work. Often many of them don't even get paid and are subjected to torture by their employers. Reports about Nepali women missing from the house they were employed in or committing suicide inside the house unable to bear the torture of her employers regularly appear in the media.

Although the government has put a ban on sending Nepali women for employment in Gulf countries including Lebanon, the agents often take them to New Delhi and fly them to Gulf countries from there. nepalnews.com ag May 16 08