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While six Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC), namely UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Oman along with the east Asian nation Malaysia still take 80 percent of Nepali migrant workers annually, central and eastern European countries have emerged as new destinations for foreign jobs for Nepali migrant workers. According to the Nepal Labor Migration Report 2022, the United Kingdom, Albania, Croatia, Poland, Romania and Cyprus are being increasingly preferred by Nepali migrant workers for foreign employment. Similarly, Turkey in West Asia and the Maldives in South Asia also attract Nepali workers in large numbers. As wages and facilities are comparatively better in Europe than in GCC countries Nepali workers are choosing European countries over the Gulf nations. The average monthly income of Nepali workers in Gulf countries is Rs 30-40,000, and those working in European countries can earn Rs 100,000-150,000. The report states individual labor approvals for the United Kingdom increased by a whopping 975 percent in FY 2021/22 while that of Croatia increased by 247 percent. Similarly, labor approvals for Poland and Turkey surged by 251 and 101 percent respectively. The labor approvals issued for the Maldives increased from 2450 in 2017/18 to 6591 in 2021/22. Jordan and Malta have also seen a significant increase in the number of Nepali migrant workers going there. The rising popularity of these destinations could be due to the policy introduced by the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE) in 2022, to provide individual labor approvals to workers seeking to migrate to countries like Albania, Croatia, Poland, and Romania, among others. The report shows there has also been growth in the number of labor approvals for Nepalis going to the United Kingdom. The labor approvals for the UK increased by 95 percent in 2021/22 compared to 2017/18. The increase is due to the UK's exit from the European Union, causing labor shortages and resulting in the introduction of various temporary visas by the UK government for migrant workers for seasonal jobs. The UK government data shows that 599 Nepali citizens received temporary visas in 2021 and 415 in the first quarter of 2022 for skilled and temporary work. According to the report, "between January-March 2022, Nepal ranked fourth highest among the list of source countries for seasonal workers." The report further said, "the increase in the number of labor approvals for the UK could be due to the introduction of seasonal work visas." The data of the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE) correlates with the fact stated by the Nepal Labor Migration Report. According to the DoFE data, 5,997 Nepalis have reached Romania for foreign employment in the last 6 months alone while 4,256 have reached Croatia and 3,431 have reached Malta. Similarly, 2280 Nepali workers reached Cyprus for foreign jobs during the same period. Similarly, more Nepali workers are going to African countries including Mauritius and Seychelles. Official statistics show 228 Nepalis have reached Mauritius and 311 reached Seychelles in the last six months. The number of countries to which Nepalis are migrating for foreign employment has reached 150. While the government has approved 111 countries for labor migration through recruitment agencies, Nepalis are going to other than those approved after obtaining individual labor approvals. According to the report, there is variation in the pattern between men and women migration. Countries like Cyprus, Jordan, Turkey, Romania, Croatia and Malta are attractive destinations for women compared to men.  

The Supreme Court has issued an interim order against the Nepal Army’s move to award the contract of the sixth package of the Kathmandu-Nijgadh Fast Track project to a controversial Chinese company. The Nepal Army on December 12 had sent a letter to the Chinese company and asked its officials to come to the Nepal Army headquarters within 15 days for the contract agreement. Responding to a writ petition filed by advocate Rojan Khadka on behalf of an Indian company—Afcons Infrastructure Limited, on Tuesday, a single bench of Justice Tanka Bahadur Moktan on Wednesday issued an interim order directing the Nepal Army to not award the contract to the Chinese company at a time when the case is under consideration at the court. In his writ, Khadka had demanded that the Nepal Army’s invitation to award the contract to the Chinese company be stopped at the earliest. After the hearing on December 6, a division bench of Acting Chief Justice Hari Krishna Karki and Justice Pushpalata Mathema on December 12 had ordered the Nepal Army to submit the original documents of the contract. But, the Nepal Army wrote a letter to the Chinese company—China First Highway Engineering Company Limited, on December 12 and asked the officials to come to the Nepal Army headquarters within 15 days for the contract agreement. Later, the Indian company—Afcons Infrastructure Limited on December 20 filed a writ against the decision of the Nepal Army. Nepal Army, in charge of the project, on November 11 had decided to award the contract to the China First Highway Engineering Co. Ltd, which was disqualified earlier in the bidding process. Later, the company was deemed qualified and included in the bidding process on November 6. A total of 12 companies had applied for the bidding process of ‘Double Lane Dual Carriageway Standard Expressway Road, Bridge, Slope Stabilization, Interchange, Toll Plaza and Allied Works, in the sixth package of the Kathmandu-Tarai-Madhesh Expressway. Based on Nepal Army’s technical evaluation, five companies were qualified for the bidding process. The China First Highway Engineering Co. Ltd, which was not selected in the bidding process, filed a case against the decision at the Public Procurement Review Committee. Later, the Committee issued a directive to include the Chinese company in the bidding process which was called on June 1. After the inclusion of China First Highway Engineering Co. Ltd, six companies were selected for the bidding process. Of the qualified companies, CFHEC won the contract to construct the fast track at Rs 18. 80 billion.  

Devi Maya Karki, 25, has been working as a maid in Kathmandu for the past eight years. “This is not the life I had hoped for,” she says. She always wanted to be a teacher. She was fascinated by them. But she got married when she was just 17 years old and couldn’t pursue her dreams. “I didn’t want to get married. But saying no wasn’t an option. I didn’t want to burden my parents,” she adds. Born in Champadevi, Okhaldhunga, Karki has always had a difficult life. Her family of seven wasn’t financially stable. She says it was difficult for them to make ends meet with only one breadwinner—her elder brother. Her mother was frequently falling ill and most of the family’s income would get used up in her treatments. “My four siblings and I didn’t get to complete our schooling,” she says. After passing the 10th grade, Karki was married off. She then came to Kathmandu with her husband and they rented a small room in Minbhawan. She thought it would be a new beginning, and was filled with hope. She would work hard in this city of dreams and take good care of her family back home, she thought. But working as a maid in Kathmandu, she quickly found out, was rife with problems. The hours were too long, the work strenuous, and the pay wasn’t even halfway decent. The mother of two works four shifts daily. Yet, she’s always strapped for cash. She earns just Rs 15,000 and Rs 5,000 goes towards rent. What’s left barely covers their utilities and meals. Her husband, Rajendra, has kidney failure and is unable to work. So, Karki is the only earning member in her family. “My husband came back from the United Arab Emirates in 2015. He used to work in construction. In Kathmandu too, he continued in the same line of work and handled the children’s school fees. But now he’s unable to work,” she says. Her younger child, who is four, goes to a government school, where thankfully, she says, the fees aren’t so high. Her husband, on the other hand, needs medical treatment that amounts to Rs 19,000 every month at Bhaktapur Cancer Hospital. They have until now been able to manage the money by selling her husband’s only parental property. “I don’t know what we will do when that money runs out,” she says. With daily expenses and rent amounting to more than what she earns, Karki had to stop sending her eldest child, who is only six, to school. What adds to her pain is the fact that she is unable to spend time with her children. Her first shift starts as early as 4:30 in the morning. She rushes to her next shift around 7:00 am. Her husband readies their youngest for school. She comes home for lunch before heading out to work two back-to-back shifts that start at noon and end at six in the evening. “After coming back, I have to cook for my family too,” she says, “Although my children help me, they are still very young.” She gets some respite on Saturdays, which is her only day off. But even then, her workload remains the same. There are just so many things that need to be done at home. She says she does a week of chores from cleaning to washing clothes on Saturday. She cannot afford to take a break that, she says, she badly needs. She is tired and her muscles ache. But she has to carry on, for the sake of her family who depend on her. With the days getting colder, she is worried that work is going to be even more difficult. The water, she says, will be freezing cold, making doing the dishes an ordeal. To make things worse, many of her employers will crib and complain that she isn’t doing her job well. “There are some people who treat me badly as they consider me to be beneath them,” she says. Karki wishes she could fulfill her dream of becoming a teacher. It would earn her the respect she desperately craves. She often wonders how life would have turned out had she gone to school and gotten a degree. Would she be living in her own house? Would her children be going to good schools? “I think my children definitely wouldn’t have to suffer as much as they do right now,” she says. She wants her children to be able to pursue anything they want. Not being able to send her six-year-old to school breaks her, she says, and she’s willing to do whatever it takes to turn her family’s fortune around. “Every mother wants the best for their children. I’m failing in my duties as a parent. I know I must try harder, work more shifts perhaps. I’ll do anything to give my children a good life,” she says.

Ravi Thapa*, a 31-year-old with HIV, was admitted at a reputed hospital in Sunsari. One of the nurses threw medicines at him. She was scared to come near him. The doctors too were reluctant to check in on him during their daily rounds. His room was never cleaned—the staff never bothered to empty the trash. His wife complained, but the hospital administration blamed the patient for ‘bringing HIV to the hospital’. Thapa says visiting hospitals is the last thing he wants to do, even if he needs medical attention. Khagendra Khadka, president of the National Association of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Nepal (NAP+N), has been living with HIV for  26 years. Six months ago, he had a dental appointment. “I told the doctors that I have HIV. Perhaps that was my mistake because it delayed my treatment,” he says. He was then told to do a battery of tests that, he believes, was a way of chasing him away. “The treatment went smoothly at another hospital, where they didn’t know about my condition,” he adds. Khadka says this is nothing unusual. He has been in such situations numerous times since he was diagnosed. Anik Rana Magar, an LGBTIQA+ rights activist living with HIV for the past 25 years, says that nurses write ‘HIV positive’ in bright red letters above a patient’s bed. “This makes people stare out of curiosity. It completely violates a patient’s personal space,” she says adding doctors even deny taking on patients with HIV. Shivaram Giri, national coordinator of NAP+N, says the situation is as vexing if not more for those requiring surgeries. “Doctors deliberately push back the date of surgery to a month or so later even in critical situations. They want the patient to seek treatment elsewhere,” he says. Giri shares an incident that happened at the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) in Maharajgunj: A person with HIV was taken to the emergency room after an accident. Everyone there, he claims, was scared to be near the patient, causing much chaos and delaying treatment. These are only a few representative cases that show how people with HIV are treated at hospitals. According to data from National Center of AIDS and STD Control (NCASC), there are around 30,000 people currently living with HIV in Nepal. Most of them are migrant workers, drug users, sex workers, and individuals belonging to the LGBTIQA+ community. Majority of them are facing the same problem at every hospital department except at the Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) clinics, says Pinky Gurung, president of Blue Diamond Society (BDS). “Two years ago, we had to lose a friend as Bir Hospital was not willing to admit the patient,” says Gurung. Many hospitals, she adds, have told her to take HIV patients somewhere else. “When someone is in need of immediate medical attention, how do they expect us to run to another hospital?” she questions. Gurung, on several occasions, has found medical professionals openly denying to treat the infected or carry out their surgeries. This, she says, goes against the medical code of ethics passed by the Nepal Medical Council Act 1964 which states that in no circumstance can a doctor refrain from treating a patient. Dr Purnima Shakya, in-charge of ART clinic at Bir Hospital, says this is the outcome of how HIV has been perceived by our society for years. “People link HIV with having multiple sexual partners,” she says. This clouds the mindsets of even those in the medical field. They are much more comfortable working with infections more contagious than HIV. But HIV makes them uncomfortable. “It’s not an excuse but it’s true,” she says. Dr Bhola Rijal, a consultant gynecologist and former director of TUTH, verifies the claim. He says he has seen it happen all too many times. There are, he says, many misconceptions about HIV/AIDS among people in Nepal. “Only those who have worked closely with the infected have a better understanding of this issue,” he adds. Bleak situation  This reality weighs heavily on those living with HIV. As they fear being judged and mocked,  many refrain from testing for HIV, even when there are clear signs of infection, says Samata Bam, program coordinator at Cruise Aids Nepal, an organization that works with/for the infected. “Even if they do get tested, they don’t come for follow-ups. They don’t want to be seen near ART clinics because of societal stigma,” she says. Worse, many don’t seek medical aid even when they are severely ill. “They know it might cost them their lives yet they choose it over the discrimination they know they will face at hospitals,” says Bam. Binod Kumar Gupta, ART counselor from Meeting Targets and Maintaining Epidemic Control (EpiC) Nepal, says it’s already difficult for patients to accept their test result. “Many patients have discontinued their treatment because they would rather be in denial than take lifelong medication,” he says. Terrible treatment from hospital staff pushes them even further from acceptance. This has led to a number of suicides and suicide attempts among people who are unable to adjust with the new reality of being infected by HIV. Despite that, every month there are around 25 new HIV positive results out of the tested 150-200 individuals only at Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital in Teku, Kathmandu. Manju Adhikari, chief of the ART clinic at the same hospital, informs that only few of the infected people are willing to get treated. In the fiscal year 2021/2022 according to the World AIDS Day 2022 factsheet, published by NCASC, there were a total of 1,365 reactive (may or may not be positive but is certainly not negative) cases out of the 97,455 tested for HIV infections, which is lower in comparison to the past years.  “Even if the statistics show the number of people with HIV is decreasing, there are a lot of cases unaccounted for,” says BDS president Gurung. “The situation was slightly better 10 years back when there was a lot of media support,” says Giri of NAP+N. “That’s not the case anymore. There’s very little reporting and awareness.” Government’s take Dr Samir Kumar Adhikari, deputy spokesperson at the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP), says that the responsibility of working on anything HIV/AIDS related mostly falls under the jurisdiction of NCASC. And it has, he adds, has been working continuously to make our society friendlier for people living with HIV/AIDS. “Our job is to assist them,” he states. Lok Raj Pandey, senior health education officer at NCASC, says the government body has done its part to spread awareness and ensure a better environment, medically as well as socially for people living with HIV. He, however, denies the HIV infected face discrimination at hospitals. “We have not received such complaints so I can’t say with certainty if that’s what is happening,” he adds. On the other hand, activists and organizations ApEx talked to say they have relentlessly lobbied for the rights of people living with HIV/AIDS. Bam mentions that a bill to secure the rights of people with HIV/AIDS has been submitted in the past, but the government agencies have remained hostile. “There is nothing to protect the rights of people living with HIV till this date,” she adds. Khadka from NAP+N says the government also lacks space for people with HIV to lodge a complaint. “We don’t know where to go with our problems,” he says. He agrees with Bam on the fact that there aren’t any laws or policies that will back up those living with HIV when they face discrimination, not just at the hospitals but also in other sectors. Only a few days back, he says a child from Rautahat was not allowed to attend the school after they found out about his infection. “We had to change his school since there was no policy that could support our case,” he says, “even when the National Child Rights Council (NCRC) was on our side.” Although the government has done its part to provide the infected with free ART services, medications, and counseling, Khadka feels the same effort cannot be seen in terms of raising awareness about HIV/AIDS, especially among medical professionals. Dr Rijal believes that unless the government is willing to advocate about HIV/AIDS all year round, like they do on World AIDS Day, it’s highly unlikely for people living with HIV to get better healthcare in the future. *name changed