The Embassy of Nepal in Riyadh has said that initiatives are being taken to repatriate 24 Nepali women languishing in Saudi Arabia.

The women who were working as housemaids for private households are stuck in the Gulf nation after they ran away from their “sponsors” to escape various forms of exploitation. Eleven of them are taking refuge at the safe house run by the embassy and the rest are kept at a facility run by the Saudi government.

The women who are staying at the Saudi government-run facility will be repatriated in the first phase, possibly in the next few weeks, said the embassy.

“The Saudi government-run facility has already started the process to send 13 women to Nepal,” the embassy said in a statement. “It will take some time before the embassy starts repatriating those who are taking refuge at the embassy safe house.”

According to the embassy, most of these stranded women do not have passports with them. “They also do not have money to buy air tickets,” it said.

The embassy in recent months has been dealing with an increasing number of women who approach the embassy seeking refuge after being subjected to ill-treatment at the places where they were working.

Stating that Nepali women are “being smuggled” into Saudi Arabia, Nepal’s mission in Riyadh had urged the authorities in Kathmandu to do more to curb the trend.

According to estimates, around 40,000 Nepali women are currently working in Saudi Arabia as housemaids. More than 90 percent of them are believed to have reached the country through informal channel.

Only 1,571 Nepali women had acquired work permit from the Department of Foreign Employment to work in Saudi Arabia in 2015-16.

The embassy said most of Nepali women are being sent to the Gulf nation via India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.