Abstract
There are many Nepali men working in the Middle East and Malaysia and media reports and anecdotal evidence suggest a high risk of workplace-related accidents and injuries for male Nepali workers. Therefore, this study aims to explore the personal experiences of male Nepali migrants of unintentional injuries at their place of work. In-depth, face-to-face interviews (n = 20) were conducted with male Nepali migrant workers. Study participants were approached at Kathmandu International Airport, hotels and lodges around the airport. Interviews were transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis. Almost half of study participants experienced work-related accident abroad. The participants suggested that the reasons behind this are not only health and safety at work but also poor communication, taking risks by workers themselves, and perceived work pressure. Some participants experienced serious incidents causing life-long disability, extreme and harrowing accounts of injury but received no support from their employer or host countries. Nepali migrant workers would appear to be at a high risk of workplace unintentional injuries owing to a number of interrelated factors poor health and safety at work, pressure of work, risk taking practices, language barriers, and their general work environment. Both the Government of Nepal and host countries need to be better policing existing policies, introduce better legislation where necessary, ensure universal health (insurance) coverage for labour migrants, and improve preventive measures to minimize the number and severity of accidents and injuries among migrant workers.
Highlights
Nepal is a growing supplier of migrant labour for factories in Malaysia and building sites in the Middle East [3]
Due to limited job opportunities at home, international migration is considered as a livelihood strategy for many Nepali men with most working in high-risk, unskilled and low-paid jobs
Labour migrants from less developed economies travel to fill the unskilled and low-skill jobs as guest workers in more developed economies to do the jobs better trained and paid local workers do not want to do. This theory explains the active recruitment through labour agents in Nepal to help fulfil the demand for labour abroad, and it helps explain some of the exploitation highlighted in host countries
Summary
Nepal is a growing supplier of migrant labour for factories in Malaysia and building sites in the Middle East [3]. Labour migrants from less developed economies travel to fill the unskilled and low-skill jobs as guest workers in more developed economies to do the jobs better trained and paid local workers do not want to do This theory explains the active recruitment through labour agents in Nepal to help fulfil the demand for labour abroad, and it helps explain some of the exploitation highlighted in host countries. People working in another country (i.e., migrant workers) do so at a higher risk to their health than native workers [1, 4, 20]. Similar to migrant workers from around the world, Nepali migrant workers experience serious health and
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