Nepal, Nov. 3 -- Nepal's migrant workers sent home a record Rs2.363 trillion in FY 2025/26, up 37.1 percent. Yet since the Iran war began on February 28, new approvals for Gulf-bound workers have fallen by more than half. The money keeps coming. The jobs that keep it coming are disappearing.

For many Nepali households, a migrant worker's earnings pay for children's education, parents' healthcare, debts, housing and a cushion against financial shocks. Labour migration has become a privately financed system of household welfare, deeply embedded in Nepal's broader social protection system. That is why the pressure now building matters: Gulf labour-market nationalisation policies that prioritise citizens, and regional instability, including ...