COVID-19: Nepalese stranded at India border amid lockdown

Source: Al Jazeera

Thousands of Nepalese, who want to return home, have become stranded at border points Nepal’s 1,700km border with India.

They started walking home after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi imposed a complete lockdown on March 24.

However, Nepal closed its open borders with India, where both people and goods flow freely, to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.

It further banned all international flights from March 22, two days before the lockdown was imposed in India.

The foot-bridge over the Mahakali river that links the two countries has been sealed, stranding about 800 Nepali workers in Dharchula – an Indian border town and a district of more than 130,000 people with more than half the population living in desperate poverty.

For many Nepalese in Darchula and the surrounding districts, their livelihoods are across the border.

Nepal has just had a handful of COVID-19 cases; five confirmed by the end of March. All the cases so far were “imported” and the government says the lockdown would be crucial in avoiding local transmission of the virus.

But experts say the low level of infections is due to fewer than 1,000 tests that have been conducted in the nation of about 30 million people.

Nepal’s government built a restricted number of border quarantine facilities but when the numbers started increasing, they could not cope.

Human Rights Watch in a statement said Nepal had abandoned its workers in the fight against COVID-19, as it denied the right to return of its citizens. A large number of Nepalese also work in Malaysia and the Gulf countries.

“Nepal’s government faces huge challenges to keep its people safe during the COVID-19 pandemic, but its response should not be denying citizens the right to come home,” HRW said.

“The Nepali government should act immediately so that its citizens can come home.”

Nepalese workers are not the only group that has fled Indian cities in the wake of the strict lockdown announced by India. Hundreds of thousands of Indian migrant workers have left cities as economic activity came to a standstill.

About 900km south of Darchula, approximately 1,000 Indian citizens are stuck in the Nepalese border town of Birgunj. They have not been allowed to enter India.

Nepalese journalists say the Indian police fired warning shots at them when they tried to cross over – a charge Indian police denied. All of them have now been quarantined on Nepal’s side of the border, in a local college.

Some Nepalese have sneaked into their villages through fields and rivers without notifying authorities due to the stigma of quarantine.

Authorities in Nepal say the borders shall remain sealed, at least for another week.