Migrants who want to remain

The Nepal government has started registering its migrant workers who want to return home in West Asia and Malaysia, and planning for their transport and quarantine. But there are many Nepalis who have also decided not to go back, despite the uncertainties.

Nepal embassies in the UAE and Qatar registering migrant workers intending to go home, while the embassy in Kuwait has completed the paperwork of thousands of undocumented workers who want to take up the government’s offer of amnesty and free flights home.

However, only half the 7,000 undocumented Nepalis in Kuwait want to return despite the risk of punishment. Similar amnesty programs in the past have failed to attract many undocumented workers in the Gulf and Malaysia indicating they are willing to take the risk for the financial benefits in the shadow economy. Perhaps the share of workers registering would have been higher had it been a regularisation program that allows them to stay back.

Despite West Asian countries and Malaysia facing the double whammy of the health and economic crises, many of the 1.5 million Nepalis there seem to have decided to ride it out, and hold onto their jobs. “My duty has not been interrupted by the crisis and the lockdown,” said Surya, a Qatar-based Nepali telecom worker. “I have 18 more months in my contract, after that I get my bonus and a flight home.”

Om and his brother are in Malaysia, and neither wants to return. “There is no way I can earn Rs70,000 a month in Nepal which is what I make here,” said Om, who works in a rubber glove factory. His brother is a security guard in Kuala Lumpur and also wants to stay on.

Even Nepalis who have been out of work since the lockdown in the Gulf are also not sure about returning to Nepal. Ramesh has been confined to a quarantine camp in Qatar for over a month, and says he will decide whether or not to return depending on whether his company reopens.

“Things look bleak now, being a secondary citizen comes with living and working in someone else’s country,” he said over the phone from Qatar. “But what other alternative do I have back home?”

Nepali workers in Malaysia fear COVID-19 crackdown, Upasana Khadka

Rita works in a resort in the Maldives, and while other Nepalis there want to go back, she has decided to stay put. “Tourism is in a crisis but it will resume sooner or later,” she says. “As long as my employer is covering my expenses, I am okay. There is no guarantee things will be better in Nepal.”

Jobs abroad, although precarious, offer a steady flow of remittances that the families back in Nepal rely on even more during the lockdown. Many Nepalis are now in a wait-and-watch mode, and their future depends on how quickly economic activity resumes and if they can get back to work. It also depends on their employers’ ability to retain them, and the impact of the stimulus packages of the host countries.

Back in Nepal, there are many who had come home on leave, and cannot get back to their jobs. A Nepali couple who have been in Kuwait for seven years had come home for holidays on 28 February, but have been trapped in Kathmandu since.

“I work in a remittance company and my husband works in Starbucks. We are still paying rent in our room there, and we both want to return to our jobs,” says the wife. “Luckily, our employers have been patient. We are hoping we can go back in the evacuation flights bringing Nepalis back.”

Nepalis stranded in the Maldives, Upasana Khadka

Hari runs a small business in Malaysia which has been ravaged by the COVID-19 lockdown. He is married to a Malaysian and has a son. “For me, returning to Nepal is not an option since it would disturb my child’s education. We are just riding out the crisis in my in-law’s farm away from the city, waiting for businesses to resume,” he said in a phone interview this week. Malaysia has decided to partially lift its lockdown.

Food and lodging is a priority for those out of work, but do not want to be repatriated. The demand for repatriation is mainly from those who have lost their jobs, so one option could be to redeploy the workers to sectors such as manufacturing of health equipment, cleaning, supermarket staff, warehousing, which are essential services.

In the UAE, for example, over a 1,000 foreign workers in entertainment and cinema were retrained to work in the Carrefour supermarket that was facing a worker shortage. Nepal’s embassies in destination countries need to lobby and coordinate with industry there for redeployment of its nationals.

“Not everyone has the luxury to go home and displaced workers among them could benefit from such redeployment programs,” says Ram, who has been in the UAE for 13 years, saying many workers have to pay back loans. For now, he has registered to return to Nepal, but does not know if it is for good.

Ram has gone back to Nepal twice to start something on his own, and he says a salaried job in UAE was a safer option. He adds: “When I come here, Nepal looks like a better option. When I go to Nepal, the UAE seems like a better option. The grass is always green on the other side.”

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