Nepalese women are once again allowed to work in Qatar as housemaids, but only for carefully vetted sponsors who agree to certain conditions, Qatar Tribune reports.

Those conditions include:

• The opening of a bank account for the maid within two months of her arrival, and a monthly transfer of at least QR1,000 in salary.

• Agreement of sponsor to register the housemaid at the embassy within two months of her arrival and acquaint the embassy of her status every four months.

• A guarantee of one month paid leave to the maid after completion of a year’s work.

• Life insurance worth QR200,000.

Nepal, along with China and Kenya, has been on Qatar’s list of untapped countries in which to find domestic workers. 

The fact that Qatar has agreed to such stipulations is a sign that it has realized that it may not have a choice when it comes to the treatment of domestic expat workers, as even poorer governments are stepping in to protect their citizens from abuse overseas.

In fact, Nepal’s guidelines could be used as a working model for other countries like the Philippines, which are considering maid bans in Qatar and other GCC nations.

What do you guys think? Will all this maid ban talk become moot anyway if and when Qatar finally passes its maids’ rights bill?