The Nepali-Qatari migrant world

The Gulf Air plane from Bahrain to Qatar is exclusively filled with Nepali workers travelling from Kathmandu. Clad in cheap but new clothes, each wearing a manpower agency cap, what is immediately striking is how young they all are. Some are going for the first time; some are heading back after a few weeks' holiday in Nepal. Still others have had disastrous experiences in Malaysia, and have now found a job in khadi, or the Gulf. Around all, there is an air of tension.

When the plane lands at Doha airport, the anxiety level increases palpably. The migrants do not chat or smile, but quietly follow one another off the plane and through the airport's hallways. "Sangai basne," or Let's stick together, can regularly be heard from these new arrivals. They have all heard the stories, after all. This is the point when trouble began for Ram B, for instance. When he reached Doha a few months back, after having paid NPR 60,000 (USD 940) to a manpower agency in Kathmandu, the Qatari police suddenly told him that both his visa and work contract were fakes. For nine days he was stuck on the airport premises, drinking water from the taps in public toilets, and eating food provided by the airport's Nepali staff. In the end, his embassy sheltered him, and he is now waiting for his family to send him enough money to buy a return ticket to Nepal. By now, of course, the loan that he had to take out to come to Qatar in the first place has doubled, and the only way of paying it back will be to go abroad again.