"Gulf states must allow Nepali workers to return after quake: trade union", 28 April 2015

Hundreds of thousands of Nepali migrants working in Gulf States must be allowed to return home after a massive earthquake devastated their impoverished nation, a trade union group said on Tuesday. The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), which has 176 million members globally, said it had written to the Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates governments to ask them to suspend a sponsorship system which prevents the free movement of workers. The kafala sponsorship system is used to monitor the number of foreigners working in Gulf Arab economies, which rely heavily on cheap foreign labor, mostly recruited from countries from the Indian subcontinent... "We call upon the Gulf States, which rely so heavily on cheap and exploited labor from Nepal, to show compassion and immediately suspend the kafala restrictions which are stopping Nepalese people returning home for bereavement and to help reconstruct the country," said ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow in a statement...