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🇳🇵 Nepal /Culture & Society

Lift the migration ban on domestic work

From Kathmandu Post · () English

Summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

In-depth Sources not specified Context piece
  • Nepal's government overlooks its female migrant domestic workers, who are legal in their host countries but undocumented in Nepal due to a lack of labor permits.
  • Migration bans on domestic work push women into precarious, undocumented journeys, leaving them invisible and unprotected by the state.
  • Research suggests that migration bans do not stop determined women but instead prevent the state from tracking and protecting them, while exploitation is a broader issue in labor regimes.

Nepal's government remembers its female migrant domestic workers primarily through the remittances they send home, but largely forgets them when they seek state support. These women, often driven by gender and caste oppression and a lack of economic opportunities in Nepal, sustain households in West Asia while contributing significantly to their home country. However, by migrating without a government-issued 'labour permit,' they become invisible to the state, which then evades its responsibility and renders them disposable.

By refusing to recognise her labour migration, the state has chosen to evade its responsibility towards her, thereby rendering her disposable.

— the authorExplaining the consequence of Nepal's government policy on migrant domestic workers.

The state's refusal to recognize their labor migration, coupled with migration bans on domestic work, forces women into precarious and undocumented journeys. This invisibility prevents the state from offering consular protection, ensuring accountability, or providing pathways to redress against exploitation. Consequently, these women are punished for navigating a system that already lacks state care, opportunity, welfare, and protection from gender-based violence.

Nepal’s migration bans on domestic work push women into precarious and undocumented journeys, making them invisible to the state that bears a constitutional duty to protect its most marginalised citizens.

— the authorDescribing the dangerous outcomes of the government's restrictive policies.

Successive governments in Nepal have waged a war against women migrating for domestic work for 25 years, mistakenly identifying women's mobility as the problem rather than confronting exploitation within the sector. This approach has led to successive bans on domestic work migration, treating some of the most marginalized citizens as targets of state restriction. However, research from Nepal and other countries challenges this assumption, indicating that migration into domestic work is not inherently more exploitative than other forms of migrant labor. Male migrant workers often experience comparable or even more severe exploitation.

They have mistaken Nepali women’s mobility for the problem, turning some of the most marginalised citizens into the targets of state restriction and confinement.

— the authorCritiquing the government's approach to women's migration for domestic work.

Experts suggest that no ban can deter determined Nepali women from migrating. Instead, these bans prevent the state from knowing about their migration, abandon thousands of women working as domestic workers, and absolve the state of its obligation to respond when things go wrong. A blanket ban imposed in 2017, following a parliamentary committee recommendation, exemplifies this flawed approach, further entrenching the problem of undocumented and unprotected labor migration.

The ban prevents the state from knowing about their migration, abandons thousands of women who are working as domestic workers, and absolves the state from being obliged to respond when things go wrong.

— the authorHighlighting the counterproductive nature of migration bans.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Kathmandu Post. Summarized and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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