A parliamentary committee has directed the government to bring Nepali citizens who are stranded abroad and are willing to come home, and put them in isolation and quarantine.

The Education and Health Committee of the House of Representatives asked the government to coordinate with the respective governments for the management and safety of those who are not willing to return.

“The workers, students and all other Nepali citizens willing to return should be brought back home and be kept in quarantine and isolation facilities,” reads the directive from the House committee.

The House committee issued the directives amid reports that hundreds of migrant workers and students are stranded in different countries but the government has taken no concrete steps to rescue them.

Thousands of migrant workers in the Gulf and Middle East countries and in India are requesting the government to support them in returning home. Similarly, hundreds of Nepali students including in Bangladesh, Thailand and Cyprus have been urging the government to rescue them.

Repatriation of 175 Nepali students from Wuhan in China on February 15 is the only rescue operation the government had carried out in the wake of the global Covid-19 pandemic.

The government has suspended all international flights and sealed the border with India and China until May-end. This has left hundreds of thousands of Nepalis stranded.

The committee has also asked the government to expedite testing for Covid-19 and ensure the availability of masks, sanitizers and other health services to the public. The Supreme Court on April 7 had also directed the government to rescue the Nepali citizens stranded in Nepal-India border points.