Fifteen Nepalese women working in Lebanon as maids have committed suicide within a year, local media reported Sunday.

The women, aged 20 to 30, killed themselves after being unable to put up with abuse from their employers, Kantipur newspaper said.

'The suicide rate has gone up because of financial, mental and physical torture and sexual abuse,' Dipendra Uprety of Nepal consulate in Lebanon was quoted as saying.

Some of the women reported to have killed themselves within a month of arriving in Lebanon.

Lack of follow-up on the issue by the Foreign Ministry and absence of documents registered with the consulate has made it difficult to keep track of all the cases, Uprety said.

In January 2010, Nepal issued a ban on women traveling to Lebanon to work as maids following a rise in complaints of torture and abuse. But more than 20 women leave for Lebanon every day, through illegal channels, sources said.

More than 18,000 Nepalese are employed in Lebanon, 95 per cent of them women.

Around 800 Nepalese leave the country every day to seek employment abroad, according to employment agencies in Kathmandu.

Foreign remittances contribute up to 25 per cent of Nepal's gross domestic product, according to research journal Critical Asian Studies. Government authorities put the figure at 13 per cent.