A total of 22,655 Nepali women obtained permission from its Department of Foreign Employment to leave the country for work overseas in 2011/12, more than double the previous year’s total.

This is according to China’s Xinhua news agency, which reports the 2010/11 total as 10,416. Nepal’s population is 30.5m.

The major destinations were elsewhere in Asia, in particular Israel, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia and the UAE.

Around 80% of these individuals took jobs as domestic workers.