Nepal failing to prevent exploitation of migrant workers: Amnesty

Nepal's government has failed to prevent widespread exploitation of migrant workers, despite pledges to protect them from falling prey to unscrupulous recruitment agents, Amnesty International said on Tuesday.

The government's failure has put about 2 million workers in Gulf countries and Malaysia at risk of forced labour and trapping them in debts that take decades to pay off, the rights group said in a report released in Kathmandu on Tuesday.

‘All over Nepal, unscrupulous recruiters are getting away with destroying lives - illegally charging aspiring job-seekers exorbitant fees to get jobs abroad, and then abandoning them overseas when things go wrong,’ said James Lynch, a Deputy Director of Amnesty International.

The right group said it conducted interviews with 127 migrant workers and government officials for the report.

‘It is only when they leave Nepal that migrant workers find out that they have been deceived about everything from salary to working conditions. By then it is far too late,’ Lynch said.