Bhutan

Migration Planning Among Female Prospective Labour Migrants from Nepal: A Comparison of First‐Time and Repeat‐Migrants

“…While many NGOs and policymakers advocate the development of an alternate system through which migrant workers can identify jobs abroad and navigate the pre-departure requirements without the need for a broker, most accept that brokers will be widely used until such a time as a tried and tested alternative is implemented (Taylor-Nicholson et al, 2014). In the short term, prospective migrants, including repeat migrants, would benefit from measures that: 1) encourage accountability and professionalism among agents, for example by developing a government system to register agents, holding manpower companies accountable for the use of unregistered agents, and streamlining the way in which complaints cases against agents are dealt with; 2) help migrants acquire migration related information and vet brokers and manpower companies; and 3) ultimately reduce the need for agents, for example by decentralising labour migration services, expanding the role of local government agencies in handling pre-departure steps, and strengthening migrant resource centres (Sijapati & Nair, 2014;Taylor-Nicholson et al, 2014).…”

“…Over 21 thousand women were documented as legally emigrating for work in 2014/15 (GoN, 2016, but actual numbers are likely to be much higher, as many women migrate through irregular channels, and thus are not captured in official statistics (Ghimire, et al, 2010;Amnesty International, 2011;Sijapati & Nair, 2014). Furthermore, these statistics do not capture migration to India, the top destination for female migrant workers from Nepal (World Bank, 2011), since labour permits are not required for migration between these two countries.…”