Govt starts issuing work permits to Malaysia-bound Nepali migrant workers

KATHMANDU, April 2: Malaysian-bound Nepali migrant workers can hope to travel to the destination country for employment soon as the government on Monday started issuing work permits to the Malaysia-bound Nepali migrant workers who have received calling visas—confirmation about the job from the employers in Malaysia– from Monday, according to Department of Foreign Employment.

Malaysia has remained as one of the most preferred destinations for Nepali migrant workers beside the nations of Gulf Corporation Council.

According to the DoFE, the labor offices is issuing work permits to about 7,000 migrant workers who have already received calling visas from Malaysia employment agencies.

The government had stopped issuing permits to workers in May 2018 after the workers were found being overcharged charged by private companies. The government launched a crackdown on the agencies collecting unnecessary fees and declaring those agencies and their services illegal, leading to a suspension of labor migration to Malaysia.

Despite Nepal and Malaysia signed a milestone labor agreement in October last year, the government had not yet resumed issuing work permit to Malaysia-bound workers as the government of Malaysia had not sent the workers’ health check-up standard.

According to the agreement signed between Nepal and Malaysia, Nepali migrant workers aspiring to work in Malaysia do not have to pay any fees for the job there. The expenses on behalf of Nepali workers including recruitment service charge, two-way tickets, visa fee, medical check-up, and security screening would be borne by employers, while initial costs invested for medical check-up and security screening will be refunded to the workers in the first month of their job in Malaysia.

The agreement also decreased the labor contract period to two years from three years. Similarly, the monthly salary of the workers will be deposited in the bank account of the worker at the end of the first week of every month.

The labor agreement also allows Nepali workers to return to Nepal on 15 days leave if any immediate family members die. The pact also gives employer responsibility to send dead bodies of workers back to Nepal.

The agreement also states that the Nepali workers have the pay service charge to the recruitment agencies equivalent to the amount to 15 days of salary, but they do not need to pay any money to the Nepal-based manpower companies.

The Malaysian government on March 23 had sent medical examination standard paving way for the implementation of the labor pact reached between the two countries.