Employment Migration and Information: Parallel Streets

The remittances of Nepalese migrant workers, who mostly travel to Gulf Cooperation Council countries and Malaysia, constitute 32.1 percent of Nepal’s GDP[1]. Between 2008 and 2015, more than 2.7 million labour permits were issued by the Department of Labour and Employment[2]. However, this number is not completely reliable due to the impossibility of quantifying the number of people who have travelled through local brokers, without registering their application to work abroad. The significant contribution of migrant workers to the country’s economy should spark in us a will to support their journeys and make them as safe as possible. In order to do so, one should analyse the reasons behind their intent to find a job abroad, avoiding government-approved recruitment companies and turning to local brokers, who do not necessarily have the best intentions. Firstly, they may lack information on the advantages of referring to a recruitment agency, such as an insurance worth NPR 1,000,000 in case of the worker’s death[3]. Secondly, agencies are allowed to take NPR 10,000 to process the migrant’s application if the employer is not covering the service charge. However, innumerable agencies require a higher amount of money, which applicants are unlikely to possess but will probably take on debt to pay that sum, without being aware of the high interest rates. For instance, in 2017, an eighteen-year-old migrant who applied for a job through a recruitment agency, was provided placement in India, and was charged NPR 1,000,000[4]. Lastly, it has to be questioned whether people know what the risks of migrating are prior to their arrival in the destination country.

The last factor is arguably the most important reason underlying their decision to refer to local brokers. Do people know what the risks are of working in a foreign country without being provided the appropriate information by recruitment agencies? There are several instances of aspiring migrants, like Rajesh Khatri, who were misinformed and expected to be settled with a position that paid an adequate wage, but soon found themselves working in completely different areas, in unspeakable conditions. Other examples see people who were oblivious to the risks of working abroad due to the lack of information available to them before arriving to the destination country.

Rajesh Khatri is a migrant worker with a family of five. He worked as a security guard in India for NPR 8000 a month. To pursue his fortune, he went on to work as a production operator in Malaysia. There, he was diagnosed with cancer, probably due to the daily exposure to toxic chemicals at his workplace. In order to pay for Rajesh’s medical expenses, Sabita, his wife, requested a loan. Knowing that he could not afford time away from work to rest, the family breadwinner had to apply for another job in Malaysia. He was fortunately placed in the same position as stated in the agreement. However, he worked up to 18 hours a day to save extra money and soon found out that the job that was supposed to be permanent was actually a trial period of three months, after which he was not allowed to work extra hours. His salary dropped from the equivalent of NPR 33,000 to NPR 20,000, one third of which was deducted for living expenses. On top of that, his left leg was paralysed and requires medical treatment, which, according to the Workmen’s Compensation Act 1952, should be covered by the employer[5], but was not.

Rajesh’s story, like many others, are often neglected by the media, and remain untold. These people have survived dreadful health and safety conditions but luckily found their way home and shared their experiences. It is of vital importance to safeguard the rights of migrant workers by making them aware of the issues they might be facing once they travel abroad. Towards this goal, effort has been made by NGOs like CMIR. Cooperating with other institutions, counselling services have been established, as well as legal aid, immediate rescue, transit home[6]. The organisation alone supported 600 migrant workers and their families in 2015 and addressed 564 cases in 2016. Although, as often happens, aspiring migrants do not know where to search for information. Perhaps, because Internet usage is on an exponential rise, around 11 million users in 2015[7], a way to promote information offered by NGOs would be through videos or communications on social media or through advertisements on the most downloaded apps of the country. It would be an effective way to reach out to potentially more than one third of the Nepalese population. In fact, despite the clear improvements that have been made, migrant workers are still too often victimised by the system and by employers and this is attributable to their lack of information concerning their rights and expectations as migrant workers. Therefore, more effort has to be made to inform people in order to eradicate the problem at its roots. Following from Nelson Mandela’s renowned statement: “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”.