Over 2 million Nepalese reside in foreign countries for employment purposes and this number is expected to rise further. The recent earthquake has pushed many into financial ruin. The total destruction and the reconstruction cost is expected to be around 30% of the GDP. International migration is the only lifeline for many to earn bread in order to survive. In this situation, the duty of the government is to facilitate this process by better policies for example by lowering the cost of migration. The statistical data shows that the poorest 20% of Nepalese receive only 8% of the remittance flow whereas the richest 40% receive 60%. The data also shows that the richest 20% do not reside in the Gulf rather in Western Europe, North America, Australia or Japan. Hence, helping the poorest to migrate is vital for poverty reduction.
The average cost of migration to the Gulf is 80k excluding personal expenses. Reducing this cost is important to enable the poor to migrate. Majority of migrant workers are employed in construction sites in the Gulf. Construction works are relatively dangerous. Consequently, several dead bodies return to Nepal in daily basis. The figure below summarizes the total deaths in given years.
The figure shows that majority of death occurs in Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. However, all deaths are not work related. There are suicide, death through road traffic accidents, murder and so on.
It is also important to compare the deaths in foreign countries with the ones in country. The figure below, published by the University of Washington Panel of health data collection, shows the number of years lost in a year.
Based on this figure, 5323,000 years are lost every year in Nepal. Considering a life expectancy of 70 years, slightly more than 76,000 people die due to above mentioned reason. This is equivalent to 0.271% of the Nepalese population of 28 million. Based on 2014 figure, about 2 million Nepalese are working abroad. Calculating 0.271% of 2 million gives a total number of 5420 (0.271/100 x 2000000). This means, with the death rate of Nepal, 5420 people should have dead per year but the rate is around 3400, which is 0.17%.
However, this number is not a good comparison as there are disease like Preterm birth complications are also included which can not be the case with migrant workers. Also, migrants are generally healthier than the average population as they require a healthy body to perform physical tasks. Still, several research has shown that migrants often die of diseases that they were not aware of. The medical check up system in Nepal to acquire a foreign employment permit is not efficient and the authorities giving the medical certificate without any check up is business as usual.
The message from this article is simple: while we blame foreign countries for the deaths of migrant workers, we often ignore the higher number of deaths at home. Of course it is necessary to ensure a safe working conditions but these are often the things we as migrant senders cannot influence. What we can do is to ensure that medical check ups are performed well and the migrant is aware of any health issue he or she is facing and from the government level, it is necessary to pressure the receiving government to enact safety measures. One death is too many and everything should be done to avoid it but we should never transfer the blame to others while not fulfilling our duties. Economically, migrant death means huge burden to the country. Suppose an only bread winner of a family dies in Gulf. His family and children are likely to be pushed into poverty trap because they might have invested heavily for the migrant's trip and other costs. So, several people will be pushed to poverty due to one death. A recommendation for the government is also to initiate an insurance scheme so that the migrant family should not suffer with economical consequences. This is equally valid for the death within Nepal.
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