Nepal, clearly situated between two giant nations -- China and India -- is a small landlocked country. It is one of twenty-nine least developed countries and annual per-capita income is equivalent to US$200. In Nepal, 60% of the people are illiterate, 7.5% are employed within the industrial and service sectors, 82% of the total population is dependent on agriculture and more than 51% of the population falls below the poverty line .
The Nepalese economy is highly dominated by both foreign aid and debt. At present, the foreign debt is more than Rs 2.7 billion (US$212 million) and the trend indicates that it will exceed Rs 20 billion before the year 2000. A child has to shoulder a debt of roughly Rs. 6,000 at the time of birth. As a result of considerably low growth rates, export lags far behind imports. Consequently, the trade deficit is chronic and is estimated to reach Rs. 5.5 billion by the end of 1997. Unfortunately, 1% of the annual budget is being spent on allowances for government ministers.
In the name of integration with the globalized world economy, economic liberalization is being blindly adopted in Nepal without sufficient analysis of its strengths and weaknesses. With the expectation of more and more foreign loans, the government has implemented a policy of economic liberalization, privatization and free market economy under the instructions and conditionalities of IMF and the World Bank.
A large number of Nepalese workers go abroad to work in the absence of fruitful local employment opportunities. After the Nepal-British/India war of 1814-1815, the formal entrance of Nepalese citizens in foreign employment started, when 4,650 Nepalese were appointed to the British armed forces as a British-Gurkha regiment. Also, a large number of Nepalese workers had migrated to India for employment in the tea estates of Darjeeling and forests of Assam by the second half of the 19th century. In those early days, Nepalese were also used as troops by the colonial rulers to forcibly negotiations with various feudal rulers in Nepal. Later on, persons going abroad for employment started to work also as porters and gatemen and sex workers.
Currently, the areas of foreign employment have widened to cover even the professional and skilled sectors. This is clearly described in a booklet published for the information of foreign employers by the Ministry of Labor of His Majesty's Government of Nepal (MOL/HMG).
Although Nepal is one of the least developed countries in the world, the pressure of migrant workers from abroad is considerable. In addition to the large number of Indian migrants entering unhindered through the open Nepal-India boarder, migrant workers from Germany, Japan, China, Pakistan, Philippines, Norway, Armenia, England, Denmark, USA, Bangladesh, Thailand, Russia, Holland, Australia, Switzerland, Malaysia, Italy, Kajakisthan, France, Ukraine etc. are also working in Nepal.
Nepalese Migrant Workers Abroad: While looking at the number of foreign migrant workers in Nepal and Nepalese migrant workers abroad, a complicated and confused picture arises because of the open Nepal-India boarder. According to the latest statistical information published by Department of Labor/HMG, the total number of Nepalese migrant workers (excluding those in India) is 11,157. However, the information from our support groups formed in different countries challenges the reliability of this data. According to the Nepalese Service Committee, a GEFONT-Support Group in Japan, there are 500 Nepalese workers (male 440 & female 60) in cities in Shizuoka and Aichi Prefecture. The Nepalese Service Committee claims, however, that the total number of Nepalese in Japan is more than 5,000. Similarly, the Nepalese Consulting Committee in South Korea claims that there are more than 2,500 Nepalese migrant workers at present. In addition, the Far East Overseas Nepalese Association (FEONA - Hong Kong) is of the view that the number of Nepalese workers is more than 10,000. Another informal source claims that Nepalese workers in Hong Kong legally permitted to work, include 1,000 in domestic services, 1,000 in security works, 500 in restaurants, 500 in construction and 100 in the transport service. The source claims that the workers without permits number more than 5,000.
In India, it is estimated that there are six million citizens of Nepalese origin. The statistics cannot be denied in view of the large number of Nepalese language speakers in Darjeeling (West Bengal), Assam, Sikkim and other states. In this context, we can mention the "Report on Internal and International Migration in Nepal" prepared by the National People's Council in 1992. This report states that 274,968 Nepalese were in India in 1961. Since then, migration has increased. The All India Migrant Nepalese Association has asserted that 50% of Nepalese in India are citizens of Nepal. In recent years, the move towards employment as agri-laborers in various Indian states, mainly in Punjab and Harayana, is rapidly gaining ground. Therefore, when the total number of agri-laborers, service-workers, police and military personnel, porters, gatemen and Kanchha (hotel boys) working all over India, is taken into consideration, the claim of more than two million Nepalese in India may be a reasonable estimate. In this context, mention must also be made of the 1,530,000 Nepalese women engaged in the sex-trade in different Indian cities as presented in "Sex-Trade in Nepal: Realities and Challenges" by Gauri Pradhan.
With regard to the number of Nepalese sent abroad by foreign employment agencies, the statistical records of government agencies are wholly inadequate.
The number of migrant workers in Nepal in April 1996 is gleaned from a report by the Department of Labor (DOL). The report reveals that 643 migrant workers have been given work permits during the period 1991-96. According to DOL sources, there were 2,126 migrant workers as of September 1997. But Government departments keep silent in connection with the number of Indian migrants working in Nepal. Two decades ago, The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of India stated that there were 3.8 million Indian migrants in Nepal. At the same time, another reliable census source in India quoted the figure as only 150,000. Along with these contradictory facts, the population census of Nepal 1971 gives the data to be 137,583. Except for these, there are no reliable and authentic statistics, so we can just say, in the present context, that the number of Indian migrants in Nepal is very large. In practice, it is clear that almost 80% of the Indian migrants are from the working class whatever be the actual number.
However, an indication in this respect is shown by the study on "Labor Market Information Collection" done by DOL in 1993/94. Of the 474 industrial units from 8 districts surveyed, found 4,052 foreign migrant workers out of a total of 26,351 total workers, or 15.37%. Of the foreign migrant workers, 18.56% were women. A similar study in the far eastern district of Nepal revealed that 1,807 workers were foreign migrants from 48 industrial units. Among these only .8% were high-skilled technicians, 4% were administrators, 6% were skilled workers. The vast majority, 89%, were unskilled workers. Almost 98% of the foreign migrant workers were Indians.
There are numerous realistic stories of the sufferings of Nepalese workers abroad. It is believed that Nepalese workers are accepted in East and Southeast Asia as well as Gulf countries only because they are cheap and they do whatever job given. Most of migrants are educated from middle and lower middle class families who go abroad with the hope of earning much within a short period. A large number work illegally. For example, out of a total of 500 Nepalese migrants working in Shizuoka and Aichi prefectures in Japan, 495 lack permits.
Nepalese - whether by obtaining permits or by illegal means - reach their destination after paying Rs 80,000-100,000 to middlemen or agencies. They are generally forced to work under 3D conditions.
Among those working in South Korea, 26 have been killed and more than 100 have returned in a disabled condition. Regarding the exploitation of Nepalese migrants, Asha Maya Thapa, who had been working in Hong Kong up to 1996, is also an example. She suffered from severe jaundice, pneumonia and had only 2.5 pints of blood in her body when she was ousted from her job.
Women workers suffer the most among Nepalese migrant workers. Thousands of Nepalese women in India are smuggled and sold for prostitution, many by force. They suffer different sexual diseases including HIV/AIDS and many face social problems when they are forced to return home because of AIDS.
In early 1996, the Maharastra state government of India arrested 217 AIDS-stricken Nepalese women and put them into custody. The Maharastra government put forward its view that the women should be handed over to Nepal and that His Majesty's Government of Nepal (HMGN) should accept the proposal. But the government took no notice of it and became totally indifferent towards the event. The women have all died.
The pain and sufferings of those who entered Singapore and Malaysia without work permits are equally horrifying. They have been put into jail and tortured. The bruises that covered the whole body of Jambu Sherpa, who managed to return back from Singapore, clearly signify the inhuman practices prevalent there. According to him, more than 200 Nepalese workers are in Singapore jails and almost the same number in Malaysian jails.
In connection with Nepalese migrant workers without legal documentation, foreign employment agencies are fully responsible. On April 22, 1997, the Ministry of Labor/HMG had constituted a "Commission for the Investigation of Irregularity in Foreign Employment" to unmask those agencies. Though some of the agencies, which exploit innocent Nepalese workers rendering them helpless in foreign territories, have also been tapped by the government, action remain inadequate. On the contrary, the condition of migrant workers in Nepal is not like that of Nepalese migrants abroad. Generally, the migrants (except those from India) enter Nepal in special missions and under special projects where they receive respect, good facilities and high-protection. There exists a very low minimum wage in Nepal which is insufficient. The policy of wage determination, too, is unscientific. No third country migrant worker can subsist on the prevalent minimum wage of Nepal. But the case of thousands of Indian migrant workers is totally different. They are the major competitors to Nepalese workers in our labor market. These migrants, mainly because of high unemployment in India, enter and work in whatever terms and conditions are available. They are always ready to ignore the rights provided by Labor Act and work for wages less than the fixed minimum wage. They are concentrated especially in the construction, garment, carpet factories, tea estates, other small industrial units and in the agriculture sector. On the one hand, they are working under exploitative as well as painful conditions and very low wages; on the other, they are looked at by Nepalese workers as "job snatchers."
Documents in the format fixed by the DOL have to be presented in order to secure employment. After advertising with the permission of the DOL, workers are selected by an interview in the presence of department officials. The arrangement of passport, visa and an insurance equivalent to Rs 100,000 has to be made by the concerned agencies when workers are selected through due process.
The agency has to submit the promissory letter of the worker to bring foreign exchange when coming back to the country, as well as the contract between the foreign enterprise and Nepalese worker. And only then, will the agency be finally permitted by the DOL to send the worker abroad. Even after all these processes, the responsibility of the agency is to give orientation to the workers concerned before the departure. There are a number of such agencies permitted to work in connection with foreign employment in Nepal.
On the other side, migrants from abroad, except Indians, cannot work without work permits. They have to apply first with genuine cause for employment. They get permission only after the different administrative processes in the Ministries of Labor, Home, Finance and Foreign Affairs have been secured.
The government has opened the exit door for foreign employment to all, ranging from the highly skilled to unskilled laborers. MOL/HMG advertize through the brochure Manpower Recruitment from Nepal and the booklet A Handbook for Foreign Employers. The major cause behind these advertisements by the government is to push out the educated, semi-educated and uneducated unemployed groups. The logic of the government is that the national economy will be strengthened by the foreign exchange earnings through foreign employment. This is ineffective due to a lack of emphasis in its policies. Nepalese working abroad face numerous difficulties in remittance of their earnings and are frequently cheated by the agents. Generally, migrant workers are helped by banks to remit their earnings, but the cases of Nepalese migrants, in many countries this is not become possible.
Nepalese working as domestic helpers abroad have been the victims of under payment. Even if we overlook cases in East-Asia and the Middle East, the large number of domestic helpers in India work under extremely exploitative conditions. There is a Treaty of Peace and Friendship (1950) between Nepal and India, which the nationalists of Nepal have always opposed as an "unequal treaty." This treaty gives the right to work without intervention to the citizens of both countries.
However, Nepalese are not equally treated and their rights are always suppressed in India, whereas Indians in Nepal have always been in convenient positions in accordance with the treaty.
The Trade Union Act 1992 of Nepal provides the right of involvement in trade union activities to all the workers -- foreigners as well as natives -- in industrial and commercial enterprises. Although foreigners cannot be elected to the Executive Committee, they have the right to collective bargaining within the enterprises. Migrant workers in Nepal have rights almost equal to that of Nepalese workers which can be justified by the fact that migrant workers has been arrested.
The General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions (GEFONT) convened its second National Congress in March 1996. An important document covering the outlook, concept, and position of GEFONT on the National Labor Policy was adopted at this Congress. Foreign employment, and migrant workers issues are also analyzed.
GEFONT is of the view that the uninterrupted flow of capital from developed countries can be balanced through the labor-export of the developing ones. Traditionally, Nepalese workers are well known as Gurkhas and other military personnel, but the scope of foreign employment in military service is in decline. The attraction towards foreign employment is increasing day by day mainly due to the lack of gainful employment within the country. As a consequence of social conservatism in society, there is a mentality to avoid blue collar jobs within the country and yet to do the same work outside. As mentioned above, however, there is neither diplomatic protection for them, nor easy and secure income to remit their earnings home.
Thus, for their protection and rights, GEFONT has started to organize migrant workers through GEFONT support groups. This is going on in Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, India and some of the Gulf countries. GEFONT has also made a provision that representatives from the support group of each country can participate in its National Congress. Although we are active for the protection of their interests, we feel that they have to be trained and be given orientation in some issues and that the government should be warned in some policy issues.
Definitely the scope of foreign employment should be broadened and the government should take up the major concerns and formulate the necessary steps. Extreme care should be taken on brain-drain and skill drain. The present policy of the government should be revised so that scientists, doctors, engineers and highly qualified and skilled technicians can be properly utilized within the country by creating adequate opportunities. There is a danger of skill being exported as the outcome of the present foreign employment policy of the government.
Migrant workers should also change their mentality of permanent settlement where they have gone to work. The motherland is motherland. Their involvement in foreign employment should be limited to a particular period. If they do not feel it and try to settle there permanently, foreign employment will be useless for the nation as a whole. Similarly, our attitude should not be negative towards migrant workers working in Nepal. We should welcome skilled migrant workers for the mutual transfer of skills and technology. However we will have to create a cordial environment for their return to their home countries after a certain period. We have mentioned in our policy that labor exports from the Third World should be made easy and without complicated barriers. Our logic is that these issues should not be looked at from blind nationalist points of view.
Of course, in this context, we are alert because of the open border between Nepal and India, the size of Nepal and India and the population and unemployment rate of Nepal and India. We are quite clear that even excellent policies may become harmful from a nationalist point of view if native workers in our motherland are displaced by millions of Indian migrant workers.
Therefore, in view of special conditions in Hindu-Nepal relations, we have given due emphasis on the "work permit system" for all migrant workers, including Indians, which is clearly analyzed and presented in our "Labor Policy" document.
This report was written by Bishnu Rimal, Secretary General, General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions (Nepal).