17 December, 2019
On the eve of International Migrants Day, Amnesty International Nepal and Amnesty International South Asian Regional Office (SARO) jointly organised a consultation workshop with civil society organisations working on migrant workers’ rights in Nepal to assess the current recruitment practices; discuss major challenges and potential solutions to address recruitment abuses and exploitation through legislative interventions and practices.
In his welcome address, Bikram Dhukuchhu, the chair of Amnesty Nepal, spoke about the plight of migrant workers and the various interventions led by Amnesty International to ensure the rights of the Nepali migrant workers.
Likewise, Nirajan Thapaliya, Director of Amnesty Nepal, highlighted the multiple researches undertaken by Amnesty International concerning rights and violations of migrant workers in Nepal as well as in the destination countries.
Amnesty International has exposed widespread deception and exploitative practice of private recruitment agencies and agents in Nepal through its reports, “False Promises, 2011” and “Turning People into Profits, 2017”. The findings in the reports raised serious concerns over the failure of the Nepali government to enforce its laws and provide redress to migrant workers.
Ashmita Sapkota, campaigns coordinator at Amnesty Nepal, made a presentation about the decade-long effort of the organisation in taking forward research findings and recommendations to the general public as well as government agencies at both local, national and international level.
A session moderated by Dr. Prakash Bhattarai, migrants’ rights research expert at the Center for Social Change, saw active discussion among participants on the issue of ethical recruitment practices.
Some key suggestions involved active engagement with recruitment agencies towards ethical recruitment practices. There were also discussions about the media’s role in shaping general attitude towards migrants’ rights issues and in raising awareness about the cost-benefit analysis of the foreign employment.
Raju Chapagain, Chair of the Constitutional Lawyers’ Forum, stressed the importance of advocacy with local-level government agencies to create pressure at the local and sub-national level in addressing the issue of recruitment agencies and agents charging high fees to migrant workers.
The program concluded with a consensus to incorporate major recommendations in the submission to be handed to the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers for its inclusion in the National Human Rights Action Plan while also pushing National Human Rights Commission to do its bit to engender the issues relating to the protection of the rights of migrant workers.