Nepal’s migration ban costing women their lives

Hira Bhujel was a proud migrant domestic worker. Her first migration from Nepal to Kuwait was legal, allowing her to buy land and build a home for her family. But overnight, her future became uncertain. The Nepali government placed a migration ban on women domestic workers.

Stripped of the ability to migrate legally, Bhujel felt she had no choice but to take an irregular route back to Kuwait. Her family’s livelihood was at stake. Like thousands of women pushed into irregular routes by restrictive policies, she found herself in highly precarious working conditions that left her vulnerable to exploitation and abuse—conditions ripe for modern slavery. When she became sick, her employer and the state denied her medical care. She returned home in a coffin within months.

“forgotten when they fall ill or die”

Nepal’s migration ban, imposed in 2017 and only partially relaxed in 2020, was justified as a “protective” measure. In reality, it forced women to migrate through unofficial and irregular channels, stripping them of labor protections and leaving them invisible to both governments and the law. And when domestic work is organized through such unofficial routes, the risk of abuse—from overwork and withholding of wages to physical and sexual violence—skyrockets.

Yet women keep leaving, driven by poverty, family obligations, and the lack of economic opportunities at home. Many never make it back alive.

The Annapurna Express reports that between 2008 and 2024, around 400 Nepali female migrant workers died overseas. Bhujel’s mother expressed outrage at the lack of basic decency shown to these women. She said:

Because she worked abroad without a permit, the government turned its back on us. No compensation, no clear answers…Women like my daughter are treated as disposable labor. She was sent away without protection, forgotten when they fall ill or die.

Moreover, the report Invisible in life and death found that families of deceased migrant women face “economic devastation” following their deaths. The loss of income often leads to debt, asset loss, and mental health problems such as depression, trauma, and isolation.

A system built for abuse

Even women who start with legal contracts are not immune to danger. Over 60,000 Nepali women work as domestic workers in the Gulf, nearly 48,000 of them in Kuwait. Most are undocumented, their passports confiscated, excluded from labor agreements, and absent from official data. Many face sexual exploitation, violence, and even death. When they die, their bodies are often never returned, and families are left to grieve in silence. Experts point to systemic roadblocks:

Even destination country embassy staff are cripplingly under-resourced, with just seven people dealing with tens of thousands of migrant cases…Bureaucratic hurdles prevent access to welfare budgets, and when corpses need to be repatriated, the families and local communities are often left to pay the bill.

Megha Sunar migrated legally to Oman. When her employer died and the company stopped paying her, she fled to Kuwait for work. When she passed away, no cause was given. Her family was told she died in her sleep. Because she crossed borders irregularly, the government refused to assist with repatriation. Her family and neighbors raised the money themselves. Her husband now struggles to raise two sons alone.

In Saudi Arabia, Kenyan domestic workers remain trapped under the kafala (sponsorship) system, which ties their legal status to their employer. This system makes it almost impossible to escape abuse or return home without permission. This is the reality of domestic work when governments fail to provide safe, regulated migration pathways—it becomes a breeding ground for exploitation and domestic slavery.

A call for change

Domestic work, particularly when arranged outside official systems, is often exploitative by nature. It typically takes place in private homes, where workers are isolated, monitored, and dependent on their employer for food, shelter, and even permission to leave. Without legal protections or oversight, these conditions can—and often do—slip into forced labor.

Freedom United joins experts in urging Nepal to lift the ban and open safe, legal migration routes. Embassies must recognize and protect undocumented migrants, ensuring they are not abandoned in life or death. Sign our petition today to call on your government to ratify ILO Convention 189 and help end domestic slavery.

The names of  victims were changed to protect their privacy.