NRNA COVID-19 Response to Migrant Workers-Relief and Repatriation
BACKGROUND
Foreign employment has become the most sought-for employment option for hundreds of thousands of Nepali youths. The Government of Nepal has opened 110 countries for institutional labor permits for foreign employment. Over 4 million labor permits have been issued by the Department of Foreign Employment in between 2008/09 and 2018/19. During COVID-19, 3, 68,344 and 166,698 Nepali youths received labor permits in 2019/20 and 2020/21 respectively. The preliminary result of the 2021 census has indicated that 2,169,478 Nepalis are living in foreign countries, with 81.28 per cent males and 18. 72 per cent females. The major countries of destination for Nepali migrant workers included Qatar (31.8%), United Arab Emirates (26.5%), Saudi Arabia (19.5%), and Kuwait (6.8%).Nepali labor migrants have sent home a total of NPR 7,114.97 billion as a remittance between 2008/09 and 2020/21. The country received NPR 879 billion in FY 2018/19, NPR 875 billion in 2019/20 and NPR 961 billion in 2020/21 as remittances.The contribution of remittance in the national economy is around one-fourth of the GDP as the remittance ratio in 2020 was 24 per cent of the country’s GDP. Remittance receiving households account for 55.8 per cent of the total households in Nepal.
Despite a source of income for millions of Nepali youths, foreign employment has innumerable issues. Many Nepali migrant workers are pushed to vulnerable situation, and COVID-19 has deepened the severity of the vulnerability, for it has affected all aspects of human life, including the world of work and health. There are 995,888 active COVID-19 positive cases with 11,632 deaths in Nepal due to the global pandemic until 20 January, 2020. According to the COVID-19 Crisis Management Center, a total of 572,571 people were rescued to Nepal until 16 September 2021. The pandemic-led mobility restrictions is already affecting almost 2.2 billion workers, representing approximately 68 per cent of the world’s workforce. Migrant workers are particularly at risk due to the impact of COVID-19, limiting their access to work in the destination countries as well as return to Nepal.
The migrant workers who fall into the special vulnerable group have been seriously impacted by the current crisis. At a time when undocumented and domestic workers, pregnant, sick and with underlying health conditions are more vulnerable, the governments in the countries of destination have not been providing proper health service and treatment facility to the workers working in their countries, and not provided effective protection of employment and remuneration. With the spread of COVID-19, many migrant workers experienced job losses, layoffs and unpaid leaves, reduction in work hours.National Association of Foreign Employment Agencies estimated that the pandemic caused major job losses for Nepali workers in major countries such as in the United Arab of Emirates (30%), Malaysia (30%), Qatar (20%), Saudi Arabia (20%), Kuwait (15%), Bahrain (12%) and Oman (10%). This had an adverse impact on workers who were left stranded without access to basic amenities. Many employers failed to provide workers with accommodation and food. The pandemic created serious problems for undocumented migrant workers, domestic workers, workers whose contractual period finished, and those who were already in an exploitative situation during the migration process. For example, undocumented workers in Malaysia were targeted, raided and arrested during the pandemic.
Based on the consultation with Nepali migrant workers and Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) and Nepali embassies in the destination countries, it was necessary to provide support to the Nepali migrant workers on relief, response and repatriation. To promote and uphold the rights of Nepali migrant workers and to enable the Government of Nepal to fulfill its obligations of protecting the rights and welfare of its citizens, ILO intended to engage with the Non-Resident Nepali Association (NRNA) for implementing the COVID-19 Response to Nepali Migrant Workers’ Relief and Repatriation Program. The UAE, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Malaysia were the project destination countries. Later, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman were added to the list. The major support sectors under this project were: immediate shelter and food distribution, medical and legal counselling and re-employment support, documentation support for the needy migrant workers to link with diplomatic missions and other concerned authorities at destinations, support for small detention fines, organizing outreach camps and supporting workers for passport renewal and counselling as per the need, tele-medicine/small medical assistance, air tickets and PCR test support. Moreover, the program also supported some medical logistic items to the provincial/local level quarantines and hospitals such as mosquito nets, phenyls, hand washing liquid, PPE sets, Dettol, plastic boots, gloves, sanitizers, masks and oximeters.
Payment for hotel quarantines, PCR tests and local transportation were the support provided to the needy migrant workers to reach home safely after arrival to Kathmandu from concerned destination countries. The project reached out to 28,127 vulnerable Nepali migrant workers and supported 27,526 workers with food and shelter, counselling, outreach camps, PCR tests, air tickets, documentation, hotel quarantines, local transportation and others. The project was implemented in coordination and collaboration with Nepali diplomatic missions to ensure sustainability. The project coordinated its activities with relevant government stakeholders such as MoFA, MOLESS, FEB and like-minded NGOs that are working on migration.
This project completion report highlights the activities performed under the ILO-funded COVID-19 Response to Nepali Migrant Workers’ Relief and Repatriation Program implemented by the NRNA, documenting the gaps and challenges encountered during the projection implementation and lessons learnt and recommendations for future programs.
OBJECTIVES
4.1 General Objective
The general objective of the ‘COVID-19 Response to Nepali Migrant Workers− Relief and Repatriation of Nepali Migrant Workers Program’ was to provide immediate relief and repatriation support to stranded and vulnerable Nepali migrant workers in the Middle-East countries and Malaysia in collaboration with the Nepali diplomatic missions and other relevant stakeholders both in the countries of destination and the country of origin.
4.2 Specific Objectives
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
5.1 Management Team and Execution
Project Director: Dr. Badri K.C., Vice-President, NRNA
Steering Committee:
NRNA developed detailed project implementation and financial guidelines. There was a third-party auditing of the project and its budget. Project implementation guidelines, roles and responsibilities of the project director, project manager, field officers (volunteers), legal officers in the destination countries and holding center assistants and project accountant in Nepal were prepared separately.
Project Reporting: An Internal reporting weekly, monthly reporting to ILO and other stakeholders.
5.2 Project Deliverables
2.3 MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS
2.3.1 Vulnerable Nepali Migrant Workers Receiving Support
A total of 28,557 migrant workers have been reached out by the project. Among them, 27,926 migrants were supported with food and shelters, counselling services, outreach camps, PCR tests, air tickets and others. Out of 28,557 migrant workers reached out by the project, 26,351 were males and 2,206 were females. Similarly, out of 27,956 migrant workers receiving support by the project, 25,756 were males and 2,200 were females.
Specific support included
2.4 Assisting Missions in Relief and Repatriation
2.4.1 Food and Shelter
Being stranded in the street as their respective companies without due payment, many Nepali migrant workers struggled to fulfill their basic needs like food and accommodation. They have neither cash for food nor for their rent. They were deprived of shelters. Moreover, they had to pay extra charge for overstay in the CoDs.
2.4.2 Legal and Counselling Services
Many migrant workers faced various legal issues in the CoDs that had hindered their return to Nepal. The volunteers actively counselled them to overcome their stress in person or through social media.
2.4.3 Outreach and Help Desk Services
Outreach camps were established to assist vulnerable Nepali migrant workers far from capitals, providing immediate services, addressing grievances, and coordinating with employers. The camps offered awareness sessions, free medical checkups, and services like passport renewal, particularly in Saudi Arabia. For the first time, post-arrival orientation camps were held in coordination with the Nepali embassy, benefiting 110 newly arrived migrants. Learning from these, similar camps were conducted in Qatar and Malaysia, helping 3,972 migrants (3,322 in KSA) avoid exploitation by fake agents and navigate their rights.
2.4.4 Support for RT-PCR Tests
Considering the COVID-19 pandemic impact, the international travels were restricted without valid RTPCR test reports. Stranded Nepali migrant workers were unable to afford the fees for the test, hindering their repatriation process. Without valid RT-PCR report, they would be stuck in the CoDs for indefinite period of time and they would have nowhere to go. Figure 4 shows the number of stranded migrant workers whose RT-PCR test fees in the CoDs were paid by the project.
2.4.5 Air Tickets for Repatriation
Many companies in which the Nepali migrant workers had been working were shut down due to the pandemic. Hence, the workers were left with no secured jobs. Since many workers did not receive their salaries for months, they had no money to book return flights. Some companies had provided them with the return tickets, but they had lost the tickets and were in search of alternatives. NRNA volunteers coordinated with the embassies and companies and requested them to provide the workers with air tickets. A few of them got the tickets from the companies/embassies, but many remained excluded.
2.4.6 Detention Fines
Many innocent Nepali migrant workers face detention in centers due to alleged rule violations in their countries of destination. Often, employers withhold their visas and passports, leading to imprisonment if workers lack legal permits. The project provided support to these vulnerable migrants by covering overstay and detention fines, facilitating their release and repatriation
2.5 Support after Return to Nepal
2.5.1 Counselling
Out of 4,650 returnee migrant workers who had been reached out, 4,065 received the project support in Kathmandu with counselling and transportation. From the gender-perspective, a total of 2,911 male workers and 103 female workers received counselling and motivation as to how to stay away from getting into panic and take wise decisions.
2.5.2 Local Transportation
After meeting the workers at the TIA, the NRNA volunteers took stock of the status of the vulnerable migrant workers such as female workers, special need workers, or the ones who were in need of local 15 transport support in Nepal. Many stranded workers were referred from the CoDs for local transport support. The volunteers based in Kathmandu reached out to the returnees at the TIA and hotel quarantines and provided them with money for local transportation cost. Figure 9 shows that a total of 1,277 Nepali migrant workers, including 80 females and 1,197 males, were supported with the local transportation cost in Nepal.
2.5.3 Hotel Quarantine and RT-PCR Tests
A total of 174 returnee migrant workers (141 males and 33 females) were supported with hotel quarantine expenses by the project. Similarly, RT-PCR test was mandatory before their release from the quarantines. A total of 33 returnees (22 males and 11 females) received the RT-PCR test support in Kathmandu.
2.5.4 Support to Special Need Cases
Every migrant worker who was supported by the project was special in one way or other. However, the project identified some migrant workers who needed greater assistance. They were called the workers with special needs/women for the purpose of the project. 107 migrant workers as special cases (83 males and 24 females), with the highest number of female cases (11) in Kuwait and male cases (32) in the UAE. In Kuwait, Oman and Qatar and Russia, the number of females (11, 4, 3 and 1, respectively) surpassed the number of males (6, 0, 1 and 0, respectively) who were identified as special cases.
2.5.5 Support to Provincial and Local Governments
As the returnee migrants had to stay in quarantines set up in self-paid hotels or in the district quarantine centers according to the government’s repatriation rules, the project supported such centers for safe management. The more the number of returnees, the more logistic support was required in the quarantines. The project supported 14 health facilities of Province 1, Madhesh Province and Karnali Province
2.5.6 Skill Mapping
The data of skills of Nepali migrant workers who were reached out by the NRNA under this project were collected as part of the project according to their jobs in the countries of destination. Their jobs were categorized as unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled labors.
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