KATHMANDU, Dec 7: Dozens of dead bodies of Nepali migrant workers have remained in Saudi Arabia for more than six months. Records at the Ministry of Labor and Employment (MoLE) show that almost 50 bodies of the migrant workers have remained in various places of Saudi Arabia. Those bodies are yet to be brought to Nepal due to the lengthy legal procedure in Saudi Arabia or the legal status of the migrants.
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The records at the Foreign Employment Promotion Board (FEPB), under the MoLE, show that three dead bodies have remained in Saudi Arabia for almost seven months while six each have remained there for six and five months. Likewise, some of the dead bodies have remained there as the families of the deceased have not been identified in Nepal.
Saumitra Singh, rescue manager at the FEPB, said that the documentation process in Saudi Arabia is extremely difficult, compared to other destination countries.
“The companies, where Nepalis migrants are working, need to submit post mortem report, police report and no objection letter to the embassy in order to get exit permit from the Saudi government,” he informed. “The companies are not obliged to proceed for clearance of corpses even for more than one month.”
He even informed that sometimes it can take up to one year for dead bodies to arrive in Nepal from Saudi Arabia. However, natural death doesn't require post-mortem report to get exit permit there.
Raghu Raj Kafle, executive director at the FEPB, opined that it takes longer time for the dead bodies to arrive in Nepal if the family of the deceased is not identified in Nepal or the deceased migrant workers are not legally working there.
He, however, said that the bilateral agreement between Nepal and Saudi Arabia and the increment of human resource at the Nepali embassy there can help in improving this procedure.
Saudi Arabia, the second highest destination country of Nepali migrants, is considered to be one of the difficult places when it comes to fetching dead bodies to Nepal due to their labor laws. The labor laws there doesn't legally oblige employers to proceed for exit permit.
Nepal has opened 110 countries for foreign employment but has inked Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with only five countries - Japan, South Korea, Qatar, the UAE and Bahrain. Currently, Nepal is mulling to sign MoUs with Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
