By Pratibha Tuladhar, dpa =
Kathmandu (dpa) - Seven months ago, Dorje Gurung returned to Nepal from Qatar, where he was imprisoned after a student alleged that he had called him a terrorist.
His documents were confiscated, he was denied several months of salary and incarcerated.
“A student made racist remarks at me in the cafeteria. I told him his calling me names would be the same thing as me stereotyping him and that got me behind the bars,” said Gurung, 44, who was a science teacher there for two years.
Pressure from the Nepali intellectual class managed to secure his release after 12 days, and he was sent home.
Since then, he has been raising funds to educate children of dead migrant workers.
“If an educated person like me could be subject to being imprisoned on false charges, how deep must be the problems facing the other Nepalis in that country, who cannot even communicate properly in a foreign language,” he said.
Gurung met many other Nepalis in prison who said they had been locked up on false grounds.
“The Kafala system in Qatar gives full authority to the employer over the employee, which means the right to the legal documents or even a change of employment can only take place with the employer’s permission,” he explained.
“That has often been termed modern-day slavery.”
Mistreatment or incarceration is far from the worst fate for Nepali migrant workers, up to 1,600 of whom head each day for Malaysia and the Gulf countries, mostly as manual labour.
And every day, the bodies of between two and four dead Nepali workers arrive home at Tribhuvan International Airport, according to Department of Foreign Employment spokesman Divas Acharya.
According to government reports, about 7,500 Nepali migrant workers have died in the major labour destinations in the Gulf and Malaysia since 2000. At least 60 have died within the last four months, the data showed.
When the bodies arrive in Nepal, they are reported by the employers as "natural deaths."
“In Qatar, workers' deaths are mostly reported as cardiac arrest or heat stroke,” said Gurung. “Sometimes, employers say workers went to bed and didn’t wake up, and not all employers abide by the rest period for employees during the day, when the mercury is at its highest.”
In September, Nepal asked Qatar look into the treatment of its workers after reports that 44 of them had died during June-August.
“The Qatar government has stepped up monitoring of their companies and our embassy has reported that things have improved in terms of living conditions of the workers,” Acharya said.
But others including Gurung disagree.
“Nepal government’s presence is weak. Our embassy did nothing for so many innocents, who are still languishing in prison.”
At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, young men and women queue up from as early as 10 pm for the offices to open the next morning, so they can apply for passports.
At the Department of Foreign Migration in Kathmandu, hundreds of Nepalis line up every day, shivering in the winter cold, to seek labour permits.
“What can you do in Nepal?” said Mohan Singh Basnet, who has been hopping countries since 2005, in search of work. “Either you have to cheat or you have to have the right connections to get a job.”
“The politicians have no intent of changing things in this country. The political situation is bound to get worse in this country. Where are jobs for people like us?”
“I’ve worked in countries like Iraq and Afghanistan. I knew I could die there. But at least I made enough to fend for my family.”
Despite media reports on the deplorable condition of the migrant workers, the labour migration has not slowed.
“I used to work in Kuwait as a maid but moved to Qatar, because I got mistreated by my employers,” said Maya Tamang, whose husband also works in Qatar.
"We can’t live as husband-wife there because of strict laws but at least we’re in the same country instead of being jobless in Nepal.”
Foreign remittance accounts for 28 per cent of Nepal’s GDP.
“Those who apply for these jobs are mostly unskilled and uneducated, which makes them physically, socially and economically vulnerable,” Ganesh Gurung, former member of the National Planning Commission explained.
“The agents sell them hope, saying there’s money abroad and they can take care of their family. And it is easy to sell hope to the hopeless,” said Dorje Gurung.
Some people he met in prison were minors, who had faked documents to get jobs.
“An entire group of construction workers had been jailed on murder charges because their colleague died after they took him to hospital when he fainted,” he said.
One of them, a 22-year-old, has not had any contact with his family since his imprisonment five years ago.
“I had it easy," Gurung said as tears welled up in his eyes. "But there are thousands out there who have lost everything.”
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## dpa Contacts
- Reporting by: Pratibha Tuladhar
- Editing by: Thomas Long
Tel: +66 2 7142073; <englishservice@dpa.com>
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