Scores of absconding Nepalese workers are desperately seeking assistance to leave the Kingdom and return to their country of origin in the wake of new labor laws issued by the Saudi Ministry of Labor.

Unlike other ethnic Asian communities in Saudi Arabia, the small Himalayan community in the Kingdom has no support base and is struggling to rectify their sponsorship status and renew their residence permits.

The majority of Nepalese expatriates are based in Dammam, while the remaining are dispersed across Jeddah and Riyadh. Most of them have been recruited to execute infrastructure projects for Chinese contracting companies and locally based construction entities.

In many instances, Nepalese workers who have been working legally with their sponsors were surprised to learn that their sponsor has not renewed their residence permit and therefore find themselves unable to return back home.

“Approximately 1,000 Nepalese workers residing in Jeddah are waiting to be repatriated back home,” said Duhurbah Rajal, an official at the Nepalese Consulate General in Jeddah.

“Every day, I receive numerous calls with requests from Nepalese workers that they want to return back,” he added.

A significant number of undocumented Nepalese workers are sleeping in Dammam’s public parks and seeking help from various Asian communities.

Tulsi Ram, who arrived in the Kingdom two years ago and was recruited to work with a Chinese company in Jubail, left the company a year later because they charged him exorbitant fees to renew his residence permit. Six months later, he fell ill and his health condition has since deteriorated. Doctors have advised him to immediately undergo a hernia surgical operation. However, he cannot afford to perform the surgery in the Kingdom and is also unable to travel back to Nepal. Ram has approached authorities numerous times for repatriation to no avail.

Ram is not the only sick Nepalese worker pleading to return back. There are dozens of Nepalese citizens in the same boat who have resorted to setting up make-shift camp in public gardens in Dammam as they await deportation. A similar scenario prevails in Jeddah’s Kandra flyover.

According to Satish Chander’s account, a humanitarian worker, most of these workers are struggling to find food and water. They also have no support amongst the expatriate society because unlike their counterparts from India, Pakistan and Philippines, they are a small community in the Kingdom

Speaking with Arab News over the phone, Harish Chandra Ghirmire, head of the chancery at the Nepalese Embassy in Riyadh, reiterated that embassy officials have been extending assistance to their nationals.

He explained that embassy officials were paying frequent consular visits to Dammam, as large numbers of Nepalese workers are concentrated in the city. He also added that the embassy has made arrangements to authorize representatives stationed in Dammam and Jeddah to deal with the problems the workers are facing.

Chandra revealed that the embassy issued around 1,000 duplicate passports to Nepalese workers who had their passports seized by their sponsors and expect the figure to rise in the coming months.