Responding to escalating violence in Lebanon and neighboring Israel and the Palestinian territories, the government on December 28, 2008 temporarily stopped granting work permission to Nepalis head for those destinations.
“We thought that stopping workers from going to a particular destination for a long time is not appropriate on the back of shrinking overseas job opportunities. So we decided to re-open Lebanon as there is no longer any insecurity there for Nepalis,” Mohan Krishna Sapkota, director general of the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE) told myrepublica.com on Monday.
The decision is effective for workers who go to Lebanon through manpower agencies.
“We have made the manpower agencies more responsible for the safety of Nepali workers in Lebanon,” added Sapkota. Cases of abuse meted out to Nepali women workers in Lebanon have been reported from time to time.
According to him, Nepali manpower agents who supply workers to Lebanon have expressed a commitment to set up a refuge for Nepali workers facing abused or in need of assistance.
He said the government will also work with Caritas, an international non-governmental organization involved in rehabilitation work, and the Non-Resident Nepali Association to ensure the safety of Nepali workers as Nepal doesn´t have any diplomatic mission in Lebanon.
During fiscal year 2007/08, a total of 1,969 Nepali workers left for Lebanon where more than 15,000 Nepalis -- mainly women-- are expected to work, mostly in private houses and the service sector.
Data compiled by DoFE shows that about 1,200 workers reached Lebanon during the first nine months of the current fiscal year, 2008/09. A country of four million, Lebanon employs an estimated 200,000 foreign domestics -- mainly from the Philippines, Ethiopia and some South Asian countries.
The government still denies permission to women who want to work in Saudi Arabia and Malaysia, the second and fourth largest destinations respectively for Nepali workers -- citing insecurity and exploitation of women in those countries.
prabhakar@myrepublica.com
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