Nearly 69,000 Nepalis, most of them women, are working as domestic staff in Kuwait despite a government ban on sending workers there for that kind of job, according to diplomatic figures shared by Kuwait's Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the Nepali embassy in Kuwait City.
The figures, first reported by the Kathmandu Post, show Kuwait is now home to roughly 186,000 Nepali nationals in total about 115,000 in the private sector, 421 in the public sector, and 68,900 working as domestic staff in private households. Nepalis now make up around four percent of Kuwait's population, according to Kuwait's Public Authority for Civil Information
Why the ban exists and why it hasn't workedThe ban traces back to an April 2, 2017 directive from a parliamentary committee, which instructed Nepal's cabinet to stop sending domestic workers to Gulf countries until those countries introduced protective laws and signed formal labour agreements with Nepal. Legal departures for domestic work from Nepal to Kuwait stopped after that directive.
But the ban only closed the legal route it didn't remove the economic pressure driving women to seek the work in the first place. Sunita Limbu, a Nepali domestic worker in Kuwait, told that she took the job to support a five-year-old son and a chronically ill husband. "I earn Rs 50,000 a month here, but I had to come through unauthorised routes," she said. "Had we been allowed to migrate legally, we could at least visit our families during scheduled leave."
A government task force, led by Ram Kaji Khadka of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reached a similar conclusion in a report to the foreign and labour ministries: preventing vulnerable workers from taking domestic jobs abroad through legal channels has simply pushed them toward brokers who arrange travel on visit visas instead. The report found most affected workers come from economically disadvantaged families, including many single mothers, and named Jhapa, Sindhupalchok, Makawanpur, Morang, Kathmandu, Kavre, Ilam, Nuwakot, Sunsari and Chitwan as the main districts of origin.
What this means if you're already undocumented, or considering goingWorkers who arrive in Kuwait outside Nepal's formal labour migration system are not covered by the protections Nepal normally provides pre-departure orientation, government-registered insurance, and, critically, direct diplomatic assistance if something goes wrong.
Nepal's ambassador to Kuwait, Ghanshyam Lamsal, said the absence of official records makes it harder for the embassy to provide legal support, insurance assistance, or emergency rescue. "Rescuing workers who arrive through illegal channels poses enormous hurdles," Lamsal said. He declined to comment directly on whether the parliamentary ban itself should change.
Former Nepali ambassador to Kuwait Madhuban Paudel was more direct in his criticism of the current policy: "The state must either enforce a total physical restriction on departures, which is impossible, or regulate the process. Imposing a ban while allowing human trafficking to thrive is no solution." Paudel also said the policy has strained diplomacy with Kuwait, since Kuwaiti authorities consider anyone with a valid Kuwaiti passport and visa to be a legitimate worker under their law, regardless of whether Nepal issued that person a labour permit.
What's being done, and the practical bottom line for now
Nepal has been negotiating a bilateral labour agreement with Kuwait that would create a regulated legal pathway for domestic workers, built around a seven-point set of conditions parliament laid out in September 2020: minimum wage guarantees, weekly and annual leave, social security, occupational safety standards, round-the-clock insurance coverage, overtime pay, a dispute-resolution mechanism, mandatory training before and after arrival, protection against discrimination, and penalties for employer abuse.
Ministry of Labour spokesperson Pitambar Ghimire said drafts have been exchanged diplomatically with Kuwait, but "we have yet to reach a final consensus." Similar draft agreements have been shared with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, though foreign ministry officials say destination countries have shown limited urgency in signing binding deals while informal recruitment continues to fill demand regardless.
Until any such agreement is signed, the legal route for domestic work in Kuwait remains closed. Nepali women weighing this kind of work abroad should know that going through unauthorised channels including on a visit visa arranged by an informal broker means giving up access to Nepal's standard pre-departure protections and government-backed insurance, and significantly limits what the Nepali embassy can do to help in an emergency, according to the embassy's own account.
Sponsor-adjacent industry flag: This story concerns the recruitment-agency sector, which ICN does not accept payment from. It names licensed Kuwaiti manpower agencies in general terms (via the Kuwaiti government's own licensing framework) but does not endorse, name, or link to any specific recruitment agency or broker, in Nepal or Kuwait. Any future reporting that names a specific agency, in Nepal or Kuwait, needs a disclosure flag and editorial sign-off before publication.
