How do you say Wile E. Coyote in Nepalese?
The American Heritage Dictionary defines a coyote as "a small wolflike carnivorous animal (Canis latrans) native to western North America and found in many other regions of the continent." It does have at least one other definition: according to Wikipedia, in the southwestern United States "coyote" is the name given to "people paid to smuggle illegal aliens across the border between Mexico and the United States." Though "coyotes" are often referred to as human traffickers, there are some differences worth noting, at least in the abstract:
"Human trafficking" differs from people smuggling. A people smuggler will facilitate illegal entry into a country for a fee, but on arrival at their destination, the smuggled person is usually free. Trafficking involves a process of using physical force, fraud or deception to obtain and transport people. Women, who form the majority of trafficking victims, are particularly at risk from criminals who exploit lack of opportunities, promise good jobs or opportunities for study, and then force the victims to be prostitutes. To many, the contemporary phenomenon of trafficking in human beings is equivalent to slavery.
Small consolation this distinction must be for these men:
A group of Nepalese men recruited by a manpower company in Nepal for jobs in Iraq cried foul when they were left stranded in Sharjah for over a month and asked to fend for themselves by a company representative. "I was promised a job as a security man in Iraq. I paid 200,000 Nepalese rupees ($2880) to an agent in Nepal," said one man who did not want to be identified fearing retribution. There were 18 other Nepalese recruited along with him by the same company. They were brought to the UAE through India on a visit visa.
To give some sense of proportion to what $2880 means for Nepalese workers, keep in mind with a GDP per capita of $1447, Nepal ranks 51 of 57 Asian countries in GDP per capita and is 163rd in the world. The only other Asian countries that are poorer are Myanmar, North Korea, Tuvalu, Afghanistan, Yemen, and East Timor. In short, this was a lot of money for these men to have swindled from them. Either gentle or timid souls they must be, however, since they and not the coyote are worried about retribution. Or perhaps they are actually brave men. There is after all a ban in Nepal on recruiting Nepalese to work in Iraq. And for good reason. As the Gulf News reports it: "A travel ban to Iraq was imposed by the Nepali government in 2004 after 12 of its citizens were killed." But that characterization is an understatement. The Nepalese met a horrific end:
Twelve Nepalese hostages have been killed by their captors in Iraq. A Nepalese diplomat confirmed the deaths hours after images were put on a website, apparently showing one man being beheaded and 11 being shot dead. Nepal's ambassador to Qatar, Shyamanand Suman, said it was one of the "worst days" in his country's history. The militants said the 12 Nepalis had been killed because they "came from their country to fight the Muslims and to serve the Jews and the Christians". The group, Army of Ansar al-Sunna, said the men were being punished for helping the US, and it had "carried out the sentence of God" against them.
What the 18 men stranded in the UAE can't be is ignorant of the fact that 12 of their country men who went to Iraq to work as cooks and cleaners were kidnapped, by some accounts tortured, and then unceremoniously executed and their bodies thrown in a hole in the ground, one being so unlucky as to have been beheaded while still alive. They can't be ignorant of the fact that Nepal responded by banning its citizens from working in Iraq. And yet, knowing this they come anyway. Perhaps they are desperate. The wages are, after all, quite good- up to $400-600 per month. That's nearly 10x what many may earn back home, even before the latest round of political violence in the mountain kingdom,a place where beheading is not unknown. But even if the motivations of the 18 men can be discerned, what of the wily coyotes?
This excerpt from the Gulf News gives some clues as to just how wily they are and what their motivations must be:
A reporter from Gulf News, posing as an employee from a manpower company, got in touch with the company representative from Nepal, and was surprised about the risk factor involved in the entire operation. The company representative started off asking the reporter in broken English and Hindi how she got his contact number. She told him she also had his brother's number and the name of the recruitment agency his brother ran in Nepal. He said, "Are you looking for Nepalese labour? It's risky. I can arrange for it only if you are interested. It is illegal to recruit people to work in Iraq. You can talk to me." When the reporter insisted on getting in touch with his brother in Nepal he said, "You won't be able to get in touch with him for a while now. He has gone to Afghanistan with some Nepalese labourers." In reply to a question on whether it was legal to recruit Nepalese labourers to work in Afghanistan he said, "No, it is all done undercover. We have our network there." Asked why the men in Sharjah were not going to Iraq, he said, "I did not get my commission from the agent in Nepal. I was told the men had money on them but they do not. They now have to look out for themselves. If you want to take them, think about it and let me know. We can then strike a deal."
I honestly don't know what word or name to use to describe such people. Not in Nepalese, not in Spanish, and not in English, though as a phrase "scum of the earth" comes pretty close.
Tags: nepal | south asia | trafficking | smuggling | UAE | united arab emirates |
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