Officials worry as anti-government protests spreads across Gulf

KATHMANDU, Feb 28: As anti-government protests continue to spread like wildfire across Middle East and Gulf countries, the government is worried about the possible scenario when it may be required to evacuate hundreds of thousands of Nepalis working there.



“It would be difficult for the government to handle the situation if an event similar to Libya takes place in other countries where hundreds of thousands of Nepalis are working,” said the prime minister´s foreign relations advisor Milan Tuladhar.[break]

 

Neither is the government in a position to afford a huge cost involved for evacuation, nor are the poorly-manned Nepali embassies in these countries equipped to handle such an unpleasant situation.



Joint Secretary Purna Chandra Bhattarai, spokesperson at Ministry of Labor and Transport, said the government recently sent US $30,000 from Foreign Employment Welfare Fund to Nepali embassy in Egypt for emergency expenses, including food and lodging. He said the government is also preparing to send additional amount for safe evacuation of some 1,985 Nepali nationals working in the troubled Libya.



“We have already spent over 20 million rupees. And it is likely that we will have to spend several millions more to bring all the workers from Libya to Nepal,” said an MoFA official, asking to be unnamed.



“You can imagine the situation if a similar event takes place in Gulf countries where hundreds of thousands Nepalis are working. Our economy will literally go bankrupt should we require to evacuate them,” added the official. “And do not forget that our economy is heavily reliant on remittance.”



According to rough estimates, there are some 500,000 Nepalis working in Saudi Arabia, 375,000 in Qatar, 30,000 in Kuwait, 25,000 in Oman and 120,000 in United Arab Emirates. While Bahrain has already witnessed trouble, there are fears that other Gulf countries could also witness similar anti-government protests as the wave of democratic movement spreads across the region.



The issue of bringing stranded workers back home is a very delicate one as death of a single Nepali national could trigger violence across the country. “It is the duty of the state to protect the lives of its citizens. But given the resources we have at disposal things will go well beyond our capacity if Libya-incident repeats in Gulf countries,” said a top government official.

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