Health policies of golf countries for labor migrants

Introduction

Labor migration is related to livelihood strategy for many Nepalese, bringing social as well as economic benefits to the country and to the families(1) and contributes to around one-fourth of the country’s economy(2). It dates back to more than 200 years wherein, in the early 19thcentury, a group of Nepalese men joined the Sikh ruler Ranjit Singh’s army at Lahore. Later in 1886, the then prime minister Jung Bahadur Rana encourage young Nepalese men to join the British army(3) which continues till date in the form of Gorkha regiment in the Indian army. The liberalization of migration policies of Nepal in 1990s eased international migration(4). The concurrent economic growth of Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC) (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabiaand the United Arab Emirates)resulted in a large number of Nepalese opting for transnational migration.The outflow of labor forces wasfurther escalated by the decade long arm conflict affecting job and economy of the country (4). According to the national census 2021, more than 2.1 million Nepalese accounting to more than 7 percent of the total population, are living outside Nepal. Since the year 2008/09 over 4.7 million new entry labor approvals to Nepalese workers for overseas employment has been issued and over 1.8 million renewed since 2011/12 by the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE), Nepal. Above 80% of these workers from Nepal are hosted by the six GCC countries and Malaysia (5).