The government’s policy has been to transport them to their home districts, where they are expected to be quarantined in camps run by local authorities. However, municipal and provincial governments have been overwhelmed and state that they do not have the resources and personnel to create quarantine facilities according to the WHO standards.
For migrants returning via the airport, 20 holding centers have been set up in Kathmandu, after which they will be transported to their home province for further quarantine and self-isolation. Repatriation of Nepalese stranded abroad started from June 5 and the first phase expects to bring back 25,000 Nepalis with priority given to vulnerable groups. The government’s announcement that migrant workers wanting to return have to pay for their own tickets and for quarantine costs was criticized and challenged at court. The Supreme Court issued an interim order to the government to use the Foreign Employment Welfare Fund (a collective insurance program) to repatriate Nepali workers stranded abroad. In response, the government has finalized guidelines to repatriate stranded workers and will pay for the return tickets through the fund.
For an airborne disease that can rapidly spread in crowded and closed spaces, the long difficult journeys though different modes of transportation make migrants more vulnerable to it. The inability to have suitable quarantine facilities for returning migrants also means that the virus is spreading to remote corners of the country, which will have disastrous consequences for the rural countryside with poor health systems in place.
More needs to be done to support both short–term and long-term reintegration of migrants as Nepal and all destination countries are simultaneously affected by this pandemic and its rippling shocks.