A Power Cleaning Company in the UAE that employed them has not provided any compensation to the bereaved families until now. [break]
The company had assured to release an insurance sum of Rs four million per bereaved family. But the assurance is yet to materialize despite requests by the family members to the government of Nepal, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Nepali embassy in Qatar.
“We cannot afford to fight court case in foreign land,” said Gopal Sharma, nephew of Lilaraj Poudel, one of those killed. “We couldn´t even get the insurance money as the government took no initiative,” he rued.
The ship sank in the Arabian Sea while sailing from Dubai to Doha, killing 29 people, including 12 Nepalis.
The bereaved families are barely managing to run the households and educate their children.
Balika Sharma, wife of deceased Poudel, said her husband had left for a job in the UAE after selling fixed assets. Of the Rs 150,000 that was needed to finance Poudel´s trip to the UAE, the family is yet to pay a loan of Rs 100,000, according to Sharma.
“To pay the sum, I will have to sell my farmland,” added Sharma, who works for daily wage, and struggles to give continuity to the education of her three children.
The government had announced a relief sum of Rs 100,000 for each family. But only six families got the sum, as the rest were found to have left for Qatar without possessing labor permit, according to Baikuntha Chalise, an official with the Ministry of Labor.
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