More Nepali women leave country for work but struggle with ‘nightmare’ of illegal recruiters, abusive employers
- Between 1985 and 2001, only 161 women left Nepal for work, primarily in domestic care, but that figure shot up to 21,421 between 2014 and 2015
- Women who leave for overseas work via unlicensed means are more vulnerable to exploitation by illegal recruiters and abusive employers
Binita, 39, is preparing to leave her home in Nepal’s capital of Kathmandu, for the first time ever, to fly more than 3,200km (2,000 miles) to Kuwait, where she will work as a domestic worker.
“It is hard to go alone, but I’m doing this for my family. We do not have good income here, even though we work hard,” she told This Week in Asia, requesting to go by a pseudonym to protect her identity.
Binita has two children, a nine-year-old son and a 19-year-old daughter. She hopes that with the money she makes working in Kuwait, her daughter will be able to get a university education.
“I’m going alone to help secure my daughter’s future. I am hopeful that, one day, she will be successful and help us back,” she said.
Government data from Nepal show that between 1985 and 2001, only 161 women migrated abroad for work, but that figure shot up to 21,421 between 2014 and 2015.