”If you return to Nepal on leave, you cannot come back to Iraq, you have to make arrangements. There is no guarantee that arrangements will be made. If you could return, you would have taken a month's leave.”
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The number of Nepalis working in the autonomous region of Kurdistan, from the Iraqi capital Baghdad, which has been under ban for two decades, has reached 30,000. According to the Non-Resident Nepali Association of Iraq, 85 percent of the workers are women.
Their first focus is on earning. They can come home after taking leave, but they cannot return to Iraq because they do not have a work permit. That is why they are forced to work away from their families and the country.
Mina Magar, 35, from Taplejung, who is working in the house of an Iraqi in Sulaymaniyah, the autonomous state of Kurdistan in Iraq, says, “If you return to Nepal after taking leave, you cannot come back to Iraq again. You have to arrange arrangements. There is no guarantee that you will get arrangements. If you could return, you would have taken a month’s leave.”
It has been 12 years since she started working there. Once she goes to Nepal, it is very difficult to arrange arrangements. “It took me a month to arrange arrangements and come here. I like going to Nepal and coming back. I want to meet my parents. My parents are old. But I had to earn something and go,' she says.
According to her, it is wrong to say that there is no security in Iraq. She says, 'I brought my own sister's daughter. If it were worse, why would I bring my own sister's daughter? We have been earning here. We have been eating. We have been enjoying ourselves. We have been getting enough. I am taking care of my parents. I renewed my passport from Iraq after it expired.'
She works from 7 am to 6 pm every day. 'They don't eat in the evening. Everyone in the family I work for is married. The son is married, the daughter is married. After marriage, they don't live with their family,' she says.
Her income is also good. Initially, her salary was $300. Now it has reached $700. She says- When I came, I didn't even know the place called Iraq . I didn't even know the name . I found out after coming here that it was Iraq . Now I understand . They treat me like a daughter . I also treat them like my mother . I feel their love . They tell me to go to Nepal and meet my mother .'
She has a 19-year-old son. She has sent her son to study in America. 'I feel sad here. But I am educating my son in America. I don't have a husband . My mother is very weak and sick . I have brought her to Kathmandu,' she says, 'All this is just because I am working here.'
