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KABUL, Afghanistan The morning was not yet over, but already it felt as if the very cycle of life in Afghanistan was under assault, with attacks at a maternity ward and a funeral serving as grim reminders that its people are in peril from cradle to grave.

First, three militants stormed a hospital in Kabul soon after 10 a.m. on Tuesday, shooting new mothers dead before the newborns in their arms had even seen the light outside the hospital. At least 15 people were killed inside the hospital mothers, babies, medical workers, and one police officer.

As security forces were scrambling in Kabul, about a hundred miles to the east, in the province of Nangarhar, a suicide bomber walked into the funeral for a local police commander. As hundreds of locals queued in front of the body for the final prayer, the bomber detonated his explosives not far from the corpse.

The commander, 59, who had survived many battles and attacks, had died of a heart attack. Now his body was riddled with shrapnel, too. The explosion killed at least 25 and wounded 68 others.

Violent death here is so frequent, and so scattered, that an accurate count is an impossible task. But by dusk on Tuesday, when the reported deaths of the day from all sides had been tallied, the Afghan war had most likely taken 100 lives.

Of course, the night brings more death and the next day more tallying.

What is crushing Afghans is not just the sheer brutality of the attacks with newborn babies soaked in blood and deprived of mothers before they have even gotten a name, but the failure of anything to bring a reprieve.

The United States and the Taliban signed a preliminary peace agreement in February that was supposed to have brought the two-decade war closer to an end. Instead, the insurgents have only cranked up attacks around the country, inflicting heavy casualties on Afghan forces with dozens killed every day.

The peace deal has been stuck in a prisoner exchange that was supposed to unlock direct negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban to plan for power-sharing after the United States withdraws its remaining troops. The Taliban are insisting on the release of up to 5,000 of their prisoners before considering any other moves.

An Afghan group affiliated with the Islamic State has claimed responsibility for attacking the funeral. But no group has claimed responsibility for attacking the hospital. The Taliban, in a statement, denied that they were behind it. But coming after weeks of intensifying Taliban attacks, the government blamed the group.

And in a sign that any momentum toward peace was dissipating, President Ashraf Ghani ordered Afghan forces to abandon the active defense posture they had been in since the signing of the U.S.-Taliban agreement and return to offensive attacks against the insurgents.

The Taliban, with the stoking of foreigners, have intensified the war and are shedding Afghan blood, Mr. Ghani said in an address to the nation at the end of the bloody day. Dont see our invitation for peace and a cease-fire as our weakness, but as deep respect to the demand and will of the people.

Deborah Lyons, the head of the U.N. mission in Afghanistan, condemned the hospital assault. Who attacks newborn babies and new mothers? Who does this? she said on Twitter. The most innocent of innocents, a baby! Why? Cruelty has no followers from humanity.

The insurgents have refused even calls for a humanitarian cease-fire to allow the country to combat the rapidly spreading coronavirus, a call Mr. Ghani repeated in his address. Afghanistan has officially recorded about 5,000 cases of Covid-19, but officials warn that the spread is most likely much wider.

Between the daily toll of the war and the virus, the countrys health resources are stretched thin. With 80 percent of the population living just barely above the poverty line, there is fear that the economic shock waves of the pandemic could bring starvation.

On Tuesday, the health system itself came into the cross-hairs.

Today, my doctor, my medical personnel, the poor mother who is in labor, are left in chaos the doctor that is there to rescue her is covered in blood and falls next to her bed, said Wahid Majrooh, the deputy minister of health.

The attack in Kabul, the capital, targeted a 100-bed hospital in the western part of the city, a largely Shiite area often hit by Islamic State bombers.

The hospital is known for its large maternity ward, which is supported by Doctors Without Borders. During the five-hour operation to kill the three assailants, Afghan special forces were seen rescuing newborn babies. NATO troops were also seen at the site.

Crowds gathered outside the hospital and emotions ran high as they saw babies soaked in blood. A security official coming out of the hospital showed reporters pictures of the devastation inside the ward: mothers shot as they had tried to hide under a bed, a female nurse prostrate in blood, one woman still clinging to her newborn.

She was dead, but the baby was alive, the official said.

The relatives of one woman who had given birth at dawn were trying to get news. The womans brother wailed and twisted in pain as other relatives tried to calm him. Oh, God, oh God, was all he could say as he kept crying.

She had given birth already when the suicide bombers entered, said Rafiullah, the womans brother in law.

A community elder came out of the hospital with a list of a dozen newborns who had been evacuated to other hospitals. As he read the names of their mothers these had been written on pieces of tape on the babies stomachs, he said and the names of the hospitals the babies had been sent to, a man from the anxious crowd asked about the mothers.

Fifteen martyred mothers, said the community elder, Abdul Hadi. Their bodies are in the ambulances being evacuated now. We put them in body bags.

The bombing in Nangarhar Province targeted the funeral of Sheikh Akram, a local police commander. About 500 people had gathered at a large field in Khewa district for the final prayer, and a grave had been dug for him just across the road.

Naeem Jan Naeem, an eyewitness, said the imam had just asked people to line up and announced the beginning of the prayer when a huge blast was heard and a fire erupted in the front of the crowd.

The body of Sheikh Akram was close to the explosion, Mr. Naeem said. There was shooting after the explosion, too his face and his chest had shrapnel wounds.

His body was wounded after he had died.

Najim Rahim contributed reporting from Kabul, and Zabihullah Ghazi from Jalalabad.

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From Maternity Ward to Cemetery, a Morning of Murder in Afghanistan - The New York Times

May 13, 2020

By Tabasum Akseer

Afghanistan has endured decades of political instability and chaos. The country remains exceedingly fragile despite nearly 20 years of international support, and the disputed presidential election in February, in which long-time rivals Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah both declared themselves the winner, has left the Afghan government on the verge of imploding. As punishment for the countrys failure to resolve this dispute, the U.S. government has cut a billion dollars of aid and vowed to cut a billion more in 2021.

Added to botched elections and donor fatigue are stalled U.S.-led peace talks, which may now be derailed by Covid-19. The war-torn and impoverished nation has already been significantly affected by the spread of the virus, which has forced border closures, disrupting commercial and humanitarian deliveries and further stressing an already fragile healthcare system. As the pandemic bears down, travel restrictions and flight suspensions will make seeking care outside the country difficult or impossible.

Abandoned tanks from the Soviet era in Bamyan, Afghanistan. The country has endured decades of political instability and chaos. (Photo: Sayed Rashid Sadat / The Asia Foundation)

Amid these considerable challenges, Afghans living with disabilities are uniquely vulnerable. Afghanistan ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2012 and adopted the Law on Rights and Privileges of Persons with Disabilities the following year, but to date there have been few concrete steps to provide services to individuals living with disabilities. Assistance for Afghans with disabilities has never been a high priority for the government or the donor community, and political instability, insecurity, poor economic conditions, and weak governance have undermined efforts by the government to address their needs.

A 2020 report by Human Rights Watch notes that four decades of war have left Afghanistan with one of the worlds largest populations per capita of people with disabilities, including many with amputations, vision or hearing problems, and post-traumatic stress disorder. But the true size and circumstances of Afghanistans disabled population are uncertain, and policymaking is hindered by the lack of reliable empirical data.

In 2019, The Asia Foundation moved to fill this empirical void with the Model Disability Survey of Afghanistan. Implemented with technical support from the World Health Organization, the MDSA is the first such survey in Afghanistan in 15 years, and the first ever to collect representative data both on the prevalence and distribution of disabilities across the country and on the broader context of underlying health conditions, supportive environments, and other determinants of health and well-being of Afghanistans disabled population.

An enumerator collects data for the Model Disability Survey of Afghanistan, the first comprehensive survey of disabilities in Afghanistan in 15 years. (Photo: Jim Huylebroek / The Asia Foundation)

The MDSA is a complex survey using multistage sampling, administered to adults (18+ years) and children (217 years), with separate survey tools for each group. A total of 14,290 households were surveyed from April 14 to May 6, 2019, representing 111,641 Afghans across the country. Three core tools were developed, covering: (1) household characteristics, (2) adult disabilities (including health conditions, ability to function, healthcare support, availability of personal help and assistive products, well-being, and empowerment), and (3) childhood disabilities (including health conditions and ability to function). Importantly, the results are representative at both the national and regional levels.

The MDSA paints a disturbing picture of Afghanistans disabled population. Almost 80% of adults aged 18 and over have some form of physical, functional, sensory, or other impairment (24.6% mild, 40.4% moderate, and 13.9% severe). Severe disability is more prevalent among females (14.9%) than males (12.6%). Among children aged 217 years, 17.3% have a mild, moderate, or severe disability. The incidence of severe disabilities among adults and children, which stood at 2.7% in 2005, has risen steeply to 13.9%, putting Afghanistan in unprecedented healthcare territory.

The prevalence of severe disabilities increases with age, from 8.7% of those 1825 years old to 12.0% of those 2635, 15.2% of those 3645, 18.3% of those 4655, and 26.2% of those 56 and older. The prevalence of severe disabilities varies across ethnic groups, with Turkmen and other ethnic groups experiencing the highest incidence, at 16.5% and 16.1%, respectively. Among the other major ethnic groups, severe disability is more common among Pashtuns (14.4%) than Tajiks (13.7%), Hazaras (13.0%), or Uzbeks (11.8%). Severe disability is also more common among females, divorced or widowed adults, and the uneducated or unemployed.

The incidence of severe disability is particularly high in the South East region (20.5%), the West (25.4%), and the Central Highlands (25.4%), indicating the need for focused interventions in these areas to support health, education, and social integrationprograms.

Moderately or severely disabled adults report that their greatest challenges are physical mobility, community participation, employment, and education, suggesting these as potential policy and program areas.

Physical disabilities and mental health problems among adults are less likely to be congenital and more likely to be caused by the ongoing conflict and warfare in the country, pointing to the huge toll that thewar has taken on Afghans and underscoring the importance of peace and reconciliationefforts.

Remarkably, the MDSA found that roughly half of Afghans surveyed did not make use of assistive deviceseyeglasses, walkers, or other equipment or appliancesbecause they were not aware that such devices existed. This is a sobering finding in the 21st century, and there is obviously a dire need for essential equipment and devices, as well as education and awareness campaigns to better inform Afghans.

Children with disabilities struggle with transportation, lack opportunities for interpersonal engagement, and face difficulties learning at school. They are also far more likely to suffer from conditions such as muscular dystrophy, depression/anxiety, and migraines. Appropriate community- and school-based interventions will be critical to prevent these disabilities from lingering into adulthood.

The MDSA provides up-to-date, objective, and comprehensive data that should be used to make policy and measure progress toward improving the health and well-being of disabled populations in Afghanistan. The Afghan government, as well as the donor community, United Nations partners, nongovernmental organizations, and civil society, can use this data to develop cross-sectoral action plans to meet the needs of those living with disabilities.

The Model Disability Survey of Afghanistan can be found here. As we work to address the many challenges in Afghanistan, let us not lose sight of the most vulnerable, including those living with disabilities.

Tabasum Akseer is director of policy and research for The Asia Foundation in Afghanistan. She can be reached at tabasum.akseer@asiafoundation.org. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author, not those of The Asia Foundation.

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Disability Survey Is Afghanistan's First in 15 Years - The Asia Foundation - In Asia

The United States is bracing for a prolonged recession, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warned this morning a day after Americas top infectious disease expert told lawmakers lifting lockdowns could trigger new COVID-19 outbreaks, potentially killing more than the 81,000 that have already passed away from the virus in theU.S.

The scope and speed of this downturn are without modern precedent, significantly worse than any recession since World War II, Powell said in an ongoing webcast you can watch here.

As far as the lockdowns, Dr. Anthony Fauci warned senators Tuesday, I think were going in the right direction, but the right direction does not mean we have by any means total control of thisoutbreak.

And looking to the autumn, Fauci said, If we do not respond in an adequate way when the fall comes, given that it is without a doubt that there will be infections that will be in the community, then we run the risk of having aresurgence.

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A target to avoid: Reuters reports today the most recent projected U.S. death toll is 147,000 dead Americans by early August, according to the latest forecast from the University of Washingtons Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. That estimate is up nearly 10,000 from the last projection, as social distancing is increasingly relaxed. (N.B. Heres a discussion of the problems with models.)

For the U.S.military:

ICYMI: South Korea just flew a C-130 filled with protective equipment to Joint Base Andrews,Maryland.

In relative success stories, Hong Kong just ended a 24-day run with no new local cases. And South Korea, which has also been held up as a model for defeating the virus, has seen more than 100 new cases emerge this week with a cluster linked to a Seoul nightclubdistrict.

On the other hand, COVID now appears to have hit Nigeria, and pretty hard combining with established diseases to pose a lethal threat in a region where medical care is poor, AFP reports.

As the worlds top vacation spot, the EU wants to restart travel to Europe in time for the summer, hoping to save millions of tourism jobs, AFP reports. (Notable exception: one English beach towns tourism office has just rebranded itself Do Not Visit Blackpool.)

Heres a quick summary of the European Commissions travel guidelines across air, road, bus and rail,viaReuters.

Forty-five ventilators delivered from Russia to the U.S. are being returned to FEMA, Buzzfeed News reported Tuesday. And two of the same type of ventilators caught fire, killing 6 people in Russia in the past week, according to AFP. Reuters has more from Russia, here.

Forget Russia; llamas could help save us all. AFP has a graphic with the science backing up that claim, here.

The misleading and dangerous movie Plandemic has become a conspiracy theory whack-a-mole. AP has the story of the video that tech companies cant seem to be able to remove frequently enough, here.

US, China Should Pursue Peace, Not Military Brinkmanship // Lyu Jinghua: Neither side wants to appear weak, but recent actions and rhetoric by both sides has put all of us in greater danger of U.S.-China military tensions sliding intoarmed

Afghanistan To Resume Offensive Actions Against Taliban In Blow To Peace Deal // Katie Bo Williams: How that will affect U.S. plans is anybodysguess.

The Trump Administrations Aggressive Approach to Arms Negotiations Could Backfire // Patrick Tucker: A key arms control agreement will either get much bigger or be scuttled, hastening a new armsrace.

To Compete With Russia and China at Sea, Think Small // Joshua Tallis: Great power competition requires more than preparing for great powerconflict.

The World: A Brief Introduction, with Richard Haass // Defense One Staff: The president of the Council on Foreign Relation explains why the world needs to be reintroduced to a general audience in2020.

Coronavirus Not Slowing Russian, Chinese Space Activities, US General Says // Marcus Weisgerber: Meanwhile, the U.S. has delayed several launches amid the COVID-19pandemic.

Donald Trump Has No Plan // David Graham: Thousands are dying each week, the economy is cratering, and the president is at a totalloss.

Welcome to this Wednesday edition of The D Brief from Ben Watson and Bradley Peniston. Send us tips from your community right here. And if youre not already subscribed to The D Brief, you can do that here. On this day in 1958, Swiss electrical engineer George de Mestral trademarked a product wed later know as velcro, or as some U.S. Army trainers like to refer to it, hook and piletape.

The Taliban say theyre ready for a return to war against Afghan government forces, AFP reports from Kabul. The official statement from the group: From now onwards the responsibility of further escalation of violence and its ramifications shall fall squarely on the shoulders of the Kabul administration. Background, via Defense Ones Katie Bo Williams, here.That TB statement comes a day after 56 Afghans were killed, including women and children, in two attacks across Kabul and Nangarhar province. The latter involved a suicide attacker who detonated at a funeral, killing 32. No group has so far claimed the attack, but President Ashraf Ghani has blamed both the Taliban and the Islamic State group, AFP reports separatelytoday.

Niger says its military killed 75 Boko Haram fighters earlier this week in a region where Niger, Nigeria and Chad converge, Reuters reports.By the way: AEI has a new report out today on the health and economic toll of COVID-19 in African countries, which could see an increase [in] the likelihood of revolutions and state collapseincluding in states currently seen as stable. Read more, here; or check out a summarizing map, here.

An informal cancer survey by a military-aircrew club finds disturbingly high levels. Last fall, the Red River Valley Fighter Pilots Association asked its 3,400 members whether they had, or have had, cancer. Some 500, or 56% of respondents, said yes, the group told McClatchys Tara Copp, who has reported on higher-than-average incidences of cancer among former military people, and Congressional interest in the matter. Read on, here.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in Israel today accusing Iran of working to foment terror, AFP reports. Pompeo and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were also expected to discuss US blessing for Israeli plans to annex Jewish settlements and other territory in the occupied West Bank. West Bank annexations were detailed in President Donald Trumps controversial Middle East peace plan, which was categorically rejected by the Palestinians. For other major powers, Israeli annexations in the West Bank would amount to a grave violation of international law. More here.

Odd declassification. Acting DNI Richard Grenell has declassified a list of Obama-administration people who sought to learn the identities of Trump associates swept up in surveillance of foreign officials, the New York Times reports. Mr. Grenells move came as Mr. Trump and his associates have in recent days intensified their efforts to change public perception about the Russia inquiry from a scandal involving Mr. Trump to one involving his predecessor.Steven Aftergoods take: It is part of the struggle over who controls the narrative of the investigation of the 2016 election, Aftergood, an expert on government classification at the Federation of American Scientists, told the Times. It is putting the spotlight on the investigators rather than the investigated. It is saying what is irregular here is not the extraordinary contacts with the Russian government but the attempt to understand them. Read on, here.Meanwhile: 9/11 revelation oopsie? In a court filing last month, the FBI inadvertently revealed one of the U.S. governments most sensitive secrets about the Sept. 11 terror attacks: the identity of a mysterious Saudi Embassy official in Washington who agents suspected had directed crucial support to two of the al-Qaida hijackers, Yahoo News reports.

Judge puts hold on DoJs attempt to free confessed felon Michael Flynn. U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan said in an order Tuesday that he expects independent groups and legal experts to argue against the bid to exonerate President Trumps former national security adviser of lying to the FBI, the Washington Post reports.Previously: Why Michael Flynn Is Walking Free by The Atlantics DavidGraham.

The FBI has spotted five new bits of North Korean malware, U.S. Cyber Command said onTuesday.

Lastly today: you could own Pattons open-cab Command Car. A Dodge WC-57 Command Car customized for Gen. George S. Patton is going up for auction in Indiana on June 13, Military Times reports. Pattons 4x4 Command Car, which was part of the 3rd Army headquarters motorpool, was built in 1944, according to Worldwide Auctioneers, with a Browning .30 caliber machine gun mount, armor plating, sirens, horns, auxiliary tanks, and 3rd Army HQ pennants. A bit more, here.

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Fed chair sees prolonged recession; Afghanistan to go back on the offensive; China, Russia not slowing space ops amid COVID; And a bit more. - Defense...

Video grab.(Image credit: YouTube)

A viral video of a cat has surfaced on social media and it is "saddened to see India's migrants stranded in the cities and desperate to return to their villages".

With a 'heavy heart', Billooji's open letter on the recent migrant crisis is actually a 2-minute long video.

The video starts with the cat 'meowing' at humans."These are the most uncertain times of life," Billooji says.Talking aboutthe plight faced by these migrant labourers at large, the cat says with the lockdown they have been left without jobs, wages and will soon run out of ration.

The cat also takes a jibe at the government for doing little to help better the condition of the hundreds of the stranded migrants. The feline then says, "The governing and the non-governing hoomans (humans) have also had a catfight about who is going to pay for your journey home."

At the end Billooji says, "I am an atheist so I can't pray for you." However, the feline assures that every migrant is in its "meows, my growls, my yowls, my breath and my spirit." It signs off in its avatar: "Yours Billoji."

The video that has been uploaded on YouTube reads, "A Letter for the Moving Hoomans or 'Migrants'".

Meanwhile, one of the survivors of the Aurangabad train accident on Friday said the group of migrant workers had applied for e-transit passes a week ago but decided to walk towards their home state after not receiving any response from authorities.

Sixteen workers were killed on Friday morning after they stopped for rest on the railway tracks in Aurangabad. They had walked 45 km from Jalna to Aurangabad, and were going towards Bhusawal, another 120 km, on foot in hopes of catching a train.

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WATCH: This Cat Has an Open Letter to Humans on The Migrant Crisis in India - News18

The idea of Nepalis working in foreign countries has always been anathema to our communist parties. The 1949 manifesto, the very first from the newly formed Communist Party of Nepal, had called on Nepali women to demand the return of our sons and husbands in foreign imperialist armies, the last being a reference to both British and Indian. While the call for the end of Gurkha recruitment became a staple over the decades, with the advent of the changing labour market in the 1990s and the rise of foreign employment, that unease soon metamorphosed into a sense of indignity that Nepalis had to work in other countries.

Unfortunately, apart from cosmetic moves here and there, little was done to end that situation and we got caught increasingly into the remittance-dependent trap that many countries before us had found themselves in. For, reversing the flow of workers requires visionary leadership to create competitively remunerative employment in the country. Yet, all we have got over the years are a bunch of stirring speeches about the need to build our country and nothing else.

That became most evident after the 2015 earthquake, when those running the state, including Prime Minister KP Oli in his first stint at the top job, spoke in rousing terms of calling on the expertise of Nepalis spread around the world to help rebuild the country. That our politicians found the time, in the midst of the devastation all around them and the imperative of drafting a new constitution, to haggle over and delay the establishment of the National Reconstruction Authority by more than half a year after the earthquake says a lot about where their actual priorities lay. The idea of reaching out to expatriate Nepalis remained only thatcheap talk infused with a good dose of nationalism.

Return to nationalism

Once the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) came to power in 2017-18, it was no surprise to see nationalism making a comeback, particularly since it fit in neatly with its election promise slogan of stability and prosperity. Given that foreign employment had never sat so easily with the nationalist discourse, the sector was expected to be affected in one way or another. Thus, it was announced that the Foreign Employment Promotion Board would be provided with a mandate different from just promoting employment abroad. But when the name change actually took place in March 2019, apart from dropping promotion to become the Foreign Employment Board, absolutely nothing denoted that the Boards original role of promoting foreign employment had changed. That was so typical of this governmenthigh on rhetoric; nothing on action.

The irony is that the former Maoists who are now part of the current dispensation themselves were partly responsible for the rapid rise of foreign employment as a livelihood strategy. Records with the government showing the number of labour permits issued for those seeking employment in countries other than India began in 1993-94, with 3,605 permits issued that year. In 1996-97, the year the insurgency began, there were actually fewer labour permits handed out: 3,259. In 1997-98, figures had crept up to 7,745, and the next year, coinciding with the infamous Kilo Sierra Two police mop-up operations against the Maoists, the numbers rose nearly four-fold, to 27,796. In 1999-00 and 2000-01, a few thousand more were added, to reach 35,543 and 55,025, respectively. And, in 2001-02, with the escalation of the fighting after the army was pulled into the conflict, the numbers doubled to 104,736; we have not looked back since.

If the Maoist conflict was a major push factor, its impact was amplified by the governments own actions. As the migration scholar, Jagannath Adhikari, reminds us, in the course of the Ninth Plan period (19972002) the government developed two policies related to the promotion of foreign employment. One was to send 200 workers for foreign employment from each election constituency, numbering 201 constituencies at that time, and the other was to provide a loan of NPR 100,000 to conflict affected and socially excluded groups so that they can take opportunity for foreign employment. As he writes, policymakers believed they could stem the flow of youths into Maoist ranks by encouraging them to opt for foreign employment. Of course, all that outflow also had the highly unexpected but fortuitous result of lowering poverty rates from 42 percent in 1995-96 to 31 percent in 2003-04, all the years of intense fighting notwithstanding.

Foreign employment figures have continued to tick upwards, with the exception of a dip around the time of the financial crisis in 2008-09, reaching a record of more than 700,000 in 2014-15. The numbers have gone down progressively every year since then. Yet an excess of half a million permits were issued in 2018-19. These are the kind of figures we need to contend with as the country contemplates its next big step vis--vis the Covid-19 pandemic. The issue of internal migrants has somehow been resolved, and enough has been written about it to bear repeating here. With the focus now solely on the insufferable conditions migrant workers outside Nepal find themselves in, the clamour to bring them back is not something the government will be able to ignore for long.

Tough task ahead

The main problem facing us right now is that we do not know how many Nepalis are where at the moment, particularly when it comes to labour migrants. Lets take the example of one of the most popular destinations for NepaliQatar. The Nepal Labour Force Survey (NLFS) 2017-18 puts the number at 437,009; one recent source working with figures provided by the Department of Passports said there were 406,917 Nepalis in Qatar in 2018-19; and at a recent parliamentary committee hearing, the Foreign Employment Board provided 351,872 as the number of Nepalis in Qatar at present. These variances are pretty wide but what is clear is that we are dealing with a large number of Nepalis abroad.

In the short term, the main challenge will be how to safely bring back Nepalis and keep them safe. According to the Foreign Employment Board figures cited earlier, there are 127,000 Nepali migrant workers who need to be brought back immediately while, as of May 12, we had a total of 49,490 quarantine beds in all of Nepal. We do not know how many of the 1.2 million Nepalis in India (according to the NLFS) are also trying to get back either. Given this massive shortfall in quarantine facilities, a staggered evacuation of Nepalis abroad seems to be the only way out, and how to make that work well will require careful planning but is still within the realm of possibility.

In the long run, though, the government will have to deal with the immediate consequences of jobs having dried up in destination countries, and further losses as these economies slow down over time. Thus, in a perverse sense, the ruling party will finally have been given a chance to live up to its dream of keeping everyone at home and in the service of the nation. Even without the pandemic, one would have serious doubts whether it would have been up to the challenge. With the ongoing health emergency, that will prove to be an impossibility.

***

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Nationalism, migration and the impending job crisis - The Kathmandu Post