Rescue stranded workers

As countries around the world scramble to get their citizens out of Tripoli and other Libyan cities, Nepal also faces the tough challenge of helping Nepalis working in Libya get out of that country and to safety. Some 600 workers have managed to cross the Libyan border and make it to the Egyptian town of Sallum. Nepali embassy officials in Egypt have helped them get to Alexandria from where they will catch planes on their way back to Nepal. But more Nepalis remain stranded in Libya- - according to some estimates about 1,300 are still trapped in Tripoli, Benghazi and Ghat and their lives are at risk as fierce clashes between protestors and pro-Gadhafi forces show no sign of ending.



Rescuing one’s nationals from a country where a civil war of sorts is raging and where communications links are erratic in not going to be easy. And not just Nepal but many developed countries also-- even a country as mighty as the United States -- are struggling to get their citizens to safety. The main question, however, is have we done enough, have we done the right things and have we been effective in our rescue efforts? The answer, unfortunately, is no on all three counts. At times we have proved woefully inept and clumsy in our response. For instance, the Nepali embassy in Egypt didn´t have money to hire trucks for ferrying to Cairo the 600 workers who managed to cross the Libya-Egypt border. They had to wait 18 long hours while the Foreign Ministry in Kathmandu sorted out the problem. The Libyan uprising is not a sudden upheaval but something that has been brewing for the last two weeks. So we should have been prepared to respond adequately and promptly.



The grim reality of the Nepali state is that these poor workers toiling away abroad are seldom its priority and every time there is some foreign emergency that impacts on them the state is left fumbling. This needs to change. And soon. Nepalis working abroad already make the biggest contribution to our economy and play a great role in maintaining our social fabric intact. Without some 300 billion rupees that these workers send home every year the Nepali economy would collapse instantly and so would Nepali society.



Unfortunately, these very workers have to confront all kinds of odds right from the time they take up the initiative to seek work abroad: They borrow money at exorbitant interest rates; pay a huge cut from that to the manpower brokers; and often land in low-paying jobs in an alien world. The Nepali state must overhaul its institutions--including the ministries that deal with foreign employment-- so that it can fulfill its responsibility towards workers abroad, be it during normal times or during emergencies.

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