Labour Rights Abroad
REMITTANCES from Nepalese workers abroad have become one of
the major props of Nepal's economy. As Nepalese increasingly seek foreign employment and
get it, their earnings have come to occupy a prominent place in the scheme of national
income. With the economy not doing too well since so many years, if not for the earnings
of Nepalese workers abroad, the national economy would have been in a much poorer shape
than it is now. Estimates have it that Nepal earns about Rs 69 billion through foreign
employment and some 250,000 Nepalese labourers are currently working abroad. There are
60,000 workers working in Malaysia alone, according to statistics provided by the
Department of Labour. It is a fair guess that many more could be counted beyond the
official statistics. Juxtaposed against such significance of this sector, the travails of
Nepalese labourers working abroad are just unacceptable. It is certainly correct to say
that not sufficient respect and attention has been paid to the foreign employment sector.
Regularly it comes to light in the media how Nepalese labourers suffer in their host
countries. Their human and labour rights are, it seems routinely violated by the state and
people for whom they work. Cases of beating, non-payment of salary, verbal abuses, rape
and other violations of human rights in, for instance, the Gulf are reported quite
frequently.
Weaknesses on the part of the Nepalese missions abroad to
look after the interests of the Nepalese have also contributed to their being victims at
the hands of their employers. The Nepalese in menial jobs in the Gulf or elsewhere have
regularly found the agreement on wages dishonoured by their employers in cahoots with
middlemen. Insurance coverage or a minimum standard of living conditions are also, in many
instances, denied to them. Against this backdrop, it is welcome that Nepal has shown its
interest to join a forum of major manpower-exporting countries from South and South East
Asia to address the problems of labourers and fight for their rights. The forum is
expected to be formed during a meeting of Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India, China,
Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Pakistan to be held in Colombo, Sri Lanka, later
this year. The Sri Lankan initiative to organise the meeting is indeed laudable. Labourers
from all these countries, to a more or less degree, are denied justice in the
international labour market which is huge. South Asia alone sends one million labourers to
the global labour market. Through the instrument of such a forum, these countries could
work collectively to safeguard their citizens' rights abroad by putting pressure on the
manpower-importing countries to stick to a minimum standard of human rights for guest
workers. Then maybe these labourers, including these from Nepal, would get a fair deal
from the host countries.
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