Waiting to leave by Madhuri Mahato

WAITING TO LEAVE: Ali Akhtar Mian, 46, returned home to Parsa from Qatar on a break in February. He has been working there in a glass factory for eight years. Mian was hoping to spend a few weeks and then fly back to resume his work but has been stuck here for the last seven months. “I am waiting for Nepali government to allow us to leave,” he says, “Will the Qatari government take us back?”

Mian has looked for a job in Parsa but has not been successful. In the last seven months, all the saving he has had has been used and he has incurred a big loan as well. “The love of the family is not written in the fate of poor people like us,” says Mian, “We only think of surviving.” There is pressure from his family as well. Mian’s salary used to take his wife, three sons, a daughter, daughter-in-law and his mother. “Nepali government has never thought about poor people like us, which is why we have been leaving the country,” he says, “There is no hope at home, the future is abroad.”

Text and Photos: Madhuri Mahato @mmhisimmy

Copy Edit: Nisha Rai @nishastoryteller

Edit: Mallika Aryal @mikaness

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