Nepal bans its women from working as domestic maids in Gulf

Dubai, Sep 29 (IANS) Nepal has banned its women from taking up jobs as domestic maids in the Gulf countries and Malaysia.

Following reports of women from Nepal being brought illegally to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and Malaysia, the Nepal government has issued an order formally banning the recruitment of women from Nepal as domestic maids in the region and that southeast Asian nation, the Gulf Times reported.

Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) comprise the GCC.

'While we are not against sending our women to be employed in the organised sectors such as restaurant waiters, cleaners, saleswomen and security guards in the country's business establishments, we don't encourage our women to be employed as housemaids in GCC homes,' the report quoted an official in the Nepal embassy in Qatar as saying.

The official said some illegal recruitment agents in Nepal were running the recruitment racket with help from contacts in the Gulf nation.

He also cited a recent instance in which a woman from Nepal landed up at the Doha airport to take up a job as a domestic maid in a Qatari home. The woman had reportedly flown to Qatar via Delhi and a Delhi-based woman acted as her recruitment agent. Subsequently she was taken to the Nepal mission from the airport.

The official said the new Nepal government order banned women from taking up jobs as domestic maids in the GCC countries and Malaysia.

'To my understanding, the rules also permit Nepali women to be employed in some other countries of the region, but certainly not within the GCC,' the official said.