A Saudi company has agreed to pay 181,000 Saudi riyals (over Rs7.2 million), including end-of-service benefits and compensation, to the family of Bharat Mahato, a Nepali worker killed in a drone attack in Saudi Arabia. Mahato, from Mahottari district, had worked for the company for 14 years.

The agreement was reached following an initiative by the Nepali Embassy in Riyadh.

“The company has agreed to pay 31,000 riyals as end-of-service benefits and 150,000 riyals as compensation, bringing the total to 181,000 riyals,” said Kabiraj Upreti, labour counsellor at the Nepali Embassy in Saudi Arabia. “The money will be sent to the family after the necessary administrative procedures are completed.”

Mahato’s labour permit had expired, making his family ineligible for financial assistance from Nepal’s Foreign Employment Board and the migrant workers’ insurance scheme. The embassy informed the company of the situation, prompting it to offer compensation.

“His labour approval had expired about a year ago. As a result, his family would not qualify for financial assistance from the Foreign Employment Board or compensation under the insurance scheme,” Upreti said. “We informed the company about this, and it agreed to provide compensation from its own resources, recognising the financial hardship the family could face.”

Under Nepal’s foreign employment support system, the family of a migrant worker who dies abroad while holding valid labour approval is entitled to Rs1 million from the Foreign Employment Board’s welfare fund and up to Rs1.5 million under the foreign employment term life insurance scheme.

Mahato, 45, was from Dhekaha in ward 1 of Pipara Rural Municipality, Mahottari. He worked as a cleaner at a Saudi Aramco oil project through Abdul Wahab Mansour Al Moallam Sons Company.

He was killed on October 21 in a drone attack on the Shaybah oil field in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province. The attack, carried out by Yemen’s Houthi rebels targeting the oil project, also killed a Filipino worker.

The Nepali Embassy has completed the necessary procedure to repatriate Mahato’s body. However, disruptions to flights have made it difficult to determine when his remains will be brought home.

Mahato was the family’s main breadwinner. After 14 years of working abroad, he had recently bought a small plot of land near his home and begun building a four-room concrete house. He had hoped to move into the new home with his family once construction was complete. But he died before he could fulfil that dream.

His wife, Indrika, is now left to care for their four children while grappling with the loss of her husband and the family’s uncertain financial future.

“Our only source of hope has been extinguished. How will I raise the children now? God has been so cruel. The happiness we had has been taken away,” she said.

Indrika had taken a Rs1.1 million loan from a private bank to build the house. The family had been paying monthly instalments of Rs20,000 with the money Mahato sent home from Saudi Arabia. His death has left her wondering how she will manage the loan repayments alongside the cost of raising their children.

“My husband was working abroad, putting his blood and sweat into securing our family’s future. We had dreamed of moving into our new house and living happily together,” she said. “Now, how will I repay the bank loan?”

A few hours after the attack, a supervisor called the family to say Mahato had been caught in the strike and admitted to hospital with injuries. Later that evening, Indrika received confirmation that her husband had died.

“He had video-called us the night before the incident. He told me to take care of the family and the children,” she said. “That conversation turned out to be our last.”

Following his death, the family has been urging government agencies to expedite the repatriation of his body. Indrika had also appealed to the government to arrange compensation and financial relief for the family.

According to Indrika, Mahato first went to Saudi Arabia in 2012 and continued working there by renewing his employment contract. During his 14 years abroad, he returned to Nepal only twice.

Security tensions in Saudi Arabia have escalated since late September. Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have carried out drone and missile attacks targeting Saudi oil projects, airports and other critical infrastructure.

Available reports indicate that at least 22 people have been killed in Saudi Arabia in Houthi attacks and by debris from drones intercepted during the strikes.