"Women’s rights groups call for safe, dignified repatriation and reintegration of returnee female migrant workers", 19 June 2020

The government should start the registration process of undocumented women migrant workers who had gone on foreign employment through informal channels, women’s rights activists have demanded.

Registering the undocumented or illegal women migrant workers with the Foreign Employment Board in the wake of special circumstances created by the Covid-19 pandemic is one of the demands raised by the women’s rights activists for ensuring rights of the returnee women migrant workers.

As the Nepali migrant workers have started returning home from Covid-19 hit labour destination countries, women’s rights groups—Women-Friendly Disaster Management group, Inter-Generational Feminist Thought Leaders’ Group and Women Humanitarian and Disaster Risk Reduction Platform—have called on the government to make special arrangements for returnee women migrant workers...

...Rights activists have been blaming that the government’s restrictive approach of putting a blanket ban on women migrant workers has forced Nepali women to migrate through illegal and unsafe routes, making them more vulnerable.

According to rights activists, registration with the board will offer much-needed respite to the women migrant workers who are working in hiding or seeking refuge elsewhere. The registration will also protect them from frauds and traffickers...