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Kathmandu, Nov 15: Nearly 12,000 Nepalis have died over the past 11 years while working abroad. Heart attacks, suicides, and road accidents are the leading causes of death among Nepalis working overseas.

Data collected by the Foreign Employment Board under the Ministry of Labour, Employment, and Social Security highlights these trends. According to the board’s recently released “Annual Progress Report for Fiscal Year 2081/82,” 1,544 Nepalis died while working abroad in the last fiscal year alone.

Between Shrawan 1, 2081, and Ashad end, 2082, 329 deaths were due to illness, 224 from heart attacks, 191 from suicide, and 176 from road accidents. Among those working abroad, 212 died of natural causes, 54 in workplace accidents, 47 from cancer, 12 from kidney problems, 6 from COVID-19, and 208 from other reasons. The causes of death of 30 Nepalis remain unknown, and five were reportedly murdered during the same period.

The report shows the highest number of deaths occurred in Malaysia (394), Saudi Arabia (335), the UAE (311), Qatar (252), Kuwait (84), Bahrain (25), and Romania (24). Other countries included South Korea (19), Oman (15), Croatia (14), Mauritius (13), Japan (13), Maldives (8), Cyprus (6), Greece (4), Poland (4), Vietnam (3), Brunei (3), Jordan (2), Uganda (2), Portugal (2), and Malta (2).

The board provided financial assistance of NPR 111,946,000 to the families of the 1,544 deceased workers who had gone abroad with labor approval in fiscal year 2081/82.

Over the past 11 years, heart attacks, suicides, and road accidents have remained the main causes of death among Nepalis working abroad. From Shrawan 1, 2071, to Ashad end, 2082, a total of 11,964 Nepalis died while employed overseas.

Yearly breakdown: 1,006 in 2071/72, 827 in 2072/73, 760 in 2073/74, 838 in 2074/75, 785 in 2075/76, 681 in 2076/77, 1,276 in 2077/78, 1,512 in 2078/79, 1,276 in 2079/80, 1,459 in 2080/81, and 1,544 in 2081/82.

During this period, 2,709 died due to illness, 2,226 from natural causes, 1,882 from heart attacks, 1,419 in road accidents, and 1,418 by suicide. Workplace accidents accounted for 634 deaths, while 1,369 died from other causes such as cancer, kidney problems, or homicide. The cause of death of 275 Nepalis remains unknown.

People’s News Monitoring Service