February 28, 2011
While the Western press focuses on American and European nationals, who, for the most part have safely retuned to their countries, nearly 50,000 migrant workers from less developed countries are in dire need of rescue from Gaddafi’s lawless regime. Nepalis are among this media-ignored group.
When the uprising began, there were an estimated 3,024 Nepalis working in Libya. As of today, 316 Nepali nationals have returned home, 527 have landed in safe place outside of the Libyan border between 1000 are believed to be trapped in Benghazi and Tripoli, and the remainder are unaccounted for.
The floundering government in Nepal – with very few resources of its own – has asked the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (CRC) to step in.
The IOM has announced funds of $11 million slated to assist approximately 10,000 workers stranded in Libya – not nearly enough to take care of 50,000 migrants stuck in the ravaged country.
Nepali Ambassador to Egypt Shyam Lal Tabdar, in a telephone interview with Himalaya Times, expressed his frustration over helping the stranded Nepalis in Libya. “If they can manage to reach the Egyptian border, we can help them,” he said. Unfortunately, the Nepali Embassy in Cairo – commissioned to look after nearly a dozen other countries in Africa (including Libya) – has a staff of two: the ambassador and his secretary.
TROUBLES IN THE PAST FOR NEPALI MIGRANT WORKERS
This is not the first time Nepali migrant workers have faced danger in Libya.
In November 2008, Nepalis were recruited by Dhaulagiri International Manpower to work for a company called CKG in Libya in November 2008. The working conditions proved to deplorable, the workers had to relinquish their passports to the company and salaries were withheld. Eventually, the company folded, leaving 108 Nepalis stranded and penniless in a makeshift shelter 30 kilometers from Tripoli, without adequate water or food supply.
Each of the Nepali workers paid Rs 120,000 (approximately $1,700) to the company that had guaranteed a monthly pay of $250 for semi non-skilled workers and $500 for skilled workers. The workers hail from 40 districts across Nepal and returned broke but in debt.
FIRST WORKERS RETURN TO NEPAL WITH TALES OF HORROR
Sixty-one workers – who had been employed and sent to Libya by the South Korean Won Construction Company -- arrived back in Nepal with harrowing accounts.
According to Republica:
The situation of the Nepali workers, who were employed by the South Korean Won Construction Company at the Darnah housing project, was not so bad until 18 February when an angry mob burnt down the camps of their Korean supervisors. After their camps were burnt, the Koreans displaced the Nepalis from their camps. "On the night of February 18, the Koreans lived with us," said Mahendra. "We were forced to leave the following day."
On February 19, Bangladeshi migrant workers went to shelter in a mosque. Nepali workers also joined them. But most of them were asked to not sleep in the mosque as they were not Muslims. They stayed in an adjacent school for two days. "Hardly 40 people could sleep in one classroom at the school," Mahendra said. "But at least 90 of us had to spend the nights in one room. I could not sleep."
A local charity distributed bread and water to the migrant workers. "A single piece of bread was given to four of us," he said. "We had to share it." But there was a greater worry than the scarcity of food: their safety.
At the mosque school,thugs armed with sharp knives robbed some of them of their belongings. They snatched a mobile set from one Basudev Rai and looted money from others. "It was hard to tell who were political protestors or human rights activists and who were thugs," he said.
As the security situation steadily deteriorated in Libya, friends turned foes. Some Libyan laborers who worked alongside Nepali migrants came later to rob them. "A Libyan driver who used to supply us water tried to attack us," Mahendra said. "He was very friendly with us. But when we were left in the lurch, he came with a sharp knife."
After two sleepless nights, the Nepali workers shifted to a party palace. Things did not improve. The bread distributed by local social workers were already inadequate and water too became scarce. "We had to share a bottle of water among 10 of us," he said. "We could not go anywhere else."
On February 23, the South Korean company left the Nepali workers at the Egyptian border town of Sallum.
Nepali Ambassador to Egypt Shyam Lal Tabdar complained: “Earlier, the Korean company had promised to bear the entire cost of taking the migrant workers to Cairo, which is 800 km east of Sallum. The company had also promised airfare to Nepal from Cairo. But all of a sudden, the company’s agent ran away.”
FEAR RISES FOR NEPALI WORKERS IN OTHER GULF COUNTRIES
With violence and turmoil gripping Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen and Libya, thousands of semi-skilled Nepali workers – who keep Nepal’s fragile republic’s economy alive by sending money home from abroad – are worried about losing their jobs, and some even their lives.
According to IOM, there are 2.27 million Nepali people currently under foreign employment. Approximately 650 migrant workers leave country for overseas employment everyday. Migrants' remittances make up 21% of GDP of Nepali economy.
Nearly 1,500,000 Nepalis currently work in the Gulf States. The two largest destinations for Nepali workers in the Middle East are Saudi Arabia (560,000 workers) and Qatar (350,000 workers). An estimated 40,000 Nepalis are employed in Bahrain. The rest are scattered in UAE, Kuwait, Iraq and Libya.
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