At rising rate, Nepalis working abroad go home in coffins

[Judi Lynn]

At rising rate, Nepalis working abroad go home in coffins

Martha Mendoza, Associated Press

Updated 4:18 pm, Wednesday, December 21, 2016


KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — A tiny young woman crouches just outside the airport, crying softly into her thin shawl. It's cold out, but her sleeping toddler is heavy and warm in her arms.

Travelers swarm around: Himalayan trekkers load up expedition backpacks. A Chinese tour group boards a bus. A dozen flight attendants in crisp blue suits and heels click by.

Saro Kumari Mandal, 26, covers her head completely, a bundle of grief.

Hundreds of young Nepali men excitedly wave final goodbyes to friends and family. On this day 1,500 will fly out of the Kathmandu airport bound for jobs mostly in Malaysia, Qatar or Saudi Arabia — jobs that are urgently needed by the people of this desperately poor country.

More:
http://www.chron.com/news/medical/article/At-soaring-rate-Nepalis-seeking-jobs-abroad-come-10810199.php

[eppur_se_muova]

1. People desperate for work are all too easily exploited.

Remember, it was a bunch of Nepalis who were basically kidnapped (visas taken and held) to work in Iraq during Bush/Cheney's splendid little war, then captured and beheaded.

A number of Nepalis (and some Jamaicans) vanished from our area when their employer turned out to be crooked. I can't find the original article -- Google search found some right-wing articles claiming the Nepalis took thousands of $$$ in furniture etc., but an article I read at the time said that the company had been taking money out of their paychecks for rent, when the actual rent was about half that.

http://blog.al.com/breaking/2008/01/foreign_cinram_employees_leave.html

Cinram -- formerly JVC America -- apparently engaged in quite a lot of such chicanery in AL. Of course, they got tax breaks to bring their plants here, then screwed their employees, and finally closed their plants.


ETA: Found it ! It was the staffing agency that was taking the rent money:
http://leftinalabama.com/feds-investigate-housing-for-cinrams-third-world-temp-workers/