There was much uncertainty about the impact of COVID-19 on Nepal and it’s migrants amid the health risks, lockdown and flight bans. Stranded migrants abroad pressured the Nepal Government for repatriation support, either because they had lost jobs or due to fear of virus exposure in cramped living and work settings. With Nepal itself grappling with rising cases and a beleaguered health system, safely repatriating thousands of returnees daily posed a significant challenge. The Government had to undertake massive repatriation exercise to bring home migrants on a priority basis from multiple destination countries. Government estimates show that in the last 14 months, over 460,000 Nepalis have returned either via repatriation or regular flights, which includes regular returnees as well as those impacted by COVID-19. After a brief window with some semblance of normalcy including a slow recovery of foreign emigration, Nepal has again been gripped by a second wave fueled by a more lethal and transmissible delta variant since March. International migration is once more back into the throes of uncertainty with the lives of thousands of Nepali migrants, both current and aspirants, upended.

This is a part of a blog post by Upasana Khadka, run by Migration Policy Centre.