DOHA: Several Nepalese workers who have lost their relatives and homes in last Saturday’s earthquake in the Himalayan nation have no money to travel home.
A Nepalese community elder said he had been approached by at least 23 such compatriots and they are now trying to organise their travel home.
Many of these people had just returned from a vacation in Nepal, while some others were newcomers and didn’t have cash, Sagar Nepal said.
The community has so far identified an estimated 150 Nepalese who have lost their near and dear ones or their homes in the disaster.
“From the social media we have come to know that between 80 and 85 Nepalese in Qatar have lost their relatives as well as homes,” Nepal said.
Then, there are 70-odd people who have just lost their homes. Their relatives were injured and some of them have been discharged from hospitals after medical treatment while the others are still under treatment.
Nepal said some of his compatriots had lost their entire villages, which were perched atop mountains and located in remote valleys where access is difficult.
“Details of death and destruction from these remote places have yet to begin trickling in,” he said in remarks to this newspaper yesterday.
In Barpak, a village in Gorkha district, one of the areas worst-affected by the quake, only four of the estimated 1,200 houses remain.
Residents of several such ill-fated villages live in Qatar and some of them are feeling so pained and depressed that they want to end their lives.
“We had a meeting at Qatar Red Crescent this (yesterday) morning and I highlighted this issue of people feeling utterly pained and frustrated,” said Nepal.
“Many of these people are saying their lives are meaningless now so they want to die…They need counselling and psychological support.”
Nepal said there were many instances of families that were having lunch together perishing in the earthquake.
“In one village in Dhanding district, some function was going on indoors and some 60 people perished in a matter of minutes.”
Many Nepalese from villages that have been partially or completely destroyed are unable to contact their relatives and friends because mobile phones are not working in those places.
They can speak on phone with their relatives living or working in cities like Kathmandu, but to get news of those in the villages the relatives need to visit the villages. “That is taking time.”
Nepal said that although they had been able to identify only 150-odd Nepalese in Qatar who had lost their relatives and homes, the number may grow.
THE PENINSULA
