The government has been banning women from going abroad for domestic work for nine years. But Nepali women are going to different countries illegally for domestic work. Government studies have found that such illegal entry into foreign employment has increased exploitation and fraud against women.

A high-level committee formed under the coordination of the head of the Central Asia, West Asia and Africa division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and former ambassador Ramkaji Khadka has concluded that the exploitation and fraud of women has increased when domestic workers are banned. In the final report prepared by the committee, it is mentioned that the process of social security, rescue etc. has become complicated due to the continuous increase in the number of women going to the destination country as domestic workers. 

After a joint meeting between the Minister of Foreign Affairs Arju Rana Deuba, Minister of Home Affairs Ramesh Akhtar and Minister of Labour, Employment and Social Security Sharatsingh Bhandari, a high-level committee was formed under the leadership of Khadka on March 28 by the decision of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Labor Employment and Social Security Jeevlal Bhusal, Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Population Krishna Prasad Paudel, Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Vinod Kumar Bhattarai, Director General of Immigration Department Govinda Prasad Rizal and Director General of Foreign Employment Department Kamal Prasad Bhattarai are members of the committee.

According to the committee, when men and women who do not have the opportunity to work in the organized sector and are not qualified to do domestic work are banned from doing domestic work, there is a problem in the rescue, assistance, insurance, compensation, social security and legal assistance and defense of those who are easily obtained visit visas through middlemen and sent to their destinations through illegal means. It is mentioned in the report that it is difficult to provide legal assistance because the data and records of illegal domestic workers are not with any state agency.

The committee also said that it is difficult to contact the commission by telephone or other means to monitor the situation of domestic workers. According to the report, the persons/gangs involved in human trafficking and trafficking are taking unwanted benefits from the workers who have gone for foreign employment through the visit visa. "Workers who have reached their destination through illegal routes are increasingly choosing to commit suicide due to physical, mental stress and psychological problems," the report says. The report mentions that there are examples of people unable to return home for a long time due to the fear of not being able to return to the destination country for employment after coming to Nepal. 

The International Relations and Labor Committee of the Parliament decided on 20 Chait 2073 to instruct the Council of Ministers to completely stop sending Nepali workers to the Gulf countries until the respective countries enact concrete laws on domestic workers and sign a bilateral labor agreement with Nepal. Based on that, the sending of domestic workers has also been stopped institutionally. After this, middlemen have been sending domestic workers to different countries through visit visas. Only last Friday, 47 Nepalese women who were going to Kuwait via India were turned away from the international airport in New Delhi, India. 

Some domestic workers have expressed displeasure about being sent back. The government of Nepal must have done a great job! The chest is also wide! First, create jobs in Nepal. After that stop giving passports. The source of your income should always be open?' Uma Niraula, who works as a domestic worker in Kuwait, has asked the government on Tiktok, 'Shouldn't the hearth of the poor be lit? Don't other people's daughters and children study?' 

It is mentioned in the report that most of the very poor, destitute and single women go as domestic workers. According to the committee, mostly women from Jhapa, Sindhupalchok, Makwanpur, Morang, Kathmandu, Kavre, Ilam, Nuwakot, Sunsari and Chitwan went abroad for domestic work. In UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia alone, the number of women who have used visit visa in the last four years is 1778. It is not clear how much of it went for travel and how much was for domestic labor. 

Pooja Limbu, who is working in Kuwait, said that Lukiluki is forced to do domestic work. If Lukiluki didn't come to the housework, it would have happened. The government should have made a legal way for us not to rescue us,' Pooja said on Tiktok. 

According to the report of the High Level Committee, 48 thousand domestic workers are employed in Kuwait alone. Among them, only 8,000 people had obtained a work permit before the ban. The number of people seeking employment with a visit visa in the UAE alone is 437,444. The number of women has not been disclosed. There is a provision to convert the visit visa into an employment visa if the employer company enters into a contract with the foreign nationals who have arrived in the UAE on a visit visa.

There are 10,000 domestic workers employed in Oman. According to the Nepali Embassy in Oman, solving the problems of Nepali domestic workers is the main responsibility of the embassy. There is a situation where 10-15 female domestic workers are kept in a shelter house and given food, medication, immigration, airport transportation and legal consultation. The number of domestic workers in Saudi Arabia is uncertain. In the last five years, 3 thousand 313 domestic workers have been rescued and repatriated from 7 Gulf countries alone. 1,416 people were rescued from Kuwait, 871 from Oman, 550 from Bahrain, 209 from Saudi Arabia and 6 from Qatar.

According to the Nepali Embassy in Kuwait, being documented or undocumented does not make a difference in service delivery. "The problem will be solved if those who came to Kuwait through illegal routes are given legalized work permits or renewed," said the embassy. The Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security has set a cut-off date of September 2024 to legalize domestic workers who have reached the Gulf through the third route from the UAE.  The

committee has suggested a decision on behalf of the government to have policy clarity regarding sending domestic workers. For this, it has been suggested to discuss immediately between Nepal and UAE to send domestic workers as a proposed model project and decide whether or not to send domestic workers to other countries based on its impact. Under the proposed model project with the UAE, the UAE has implemented an employer pay model (zero cost), compulsory provision of 'basic' English and one month of residential training at the cost of the employer, a salary of at least $400, institutionally sending workers and keeping them in hostels instead of at home, weekly leave, eight hours of work and a mechanism for hearing complaints and compensation on behalf of the Nepali Embassy. 

On 13 October 2077, the parliamentary committee team reached Oman and UAE and conducted an on-site study and suggested to open up the sending of domestic workers as a model (pilot) and to remove the restrictions imposed on sending domestic workers to more countries after studying the results. Based on this, the Ministry of Labor has signed a labor agreement with the UAE and a protocol to recruit domestic workers and made a proposed model project.  What's in the

report? 

As a model project (pilot project) for countries with bilateral labor agreements, initially by sending a small number of domestic workers, advance the process by making an agreement/understanding and arrange to send more workers based on its success. Arranging to go on a visit visa for employment