KATHMANDU, March 23: Sixteen Nepalis stranded in Malaysia have been rescued and returned home by government authorities. They had been staying at the shelter homes after not being able to bear the return air ticket.

They were returned to Nepal in various batches starting March 14, according to the Nepali Embassy in Kuala Lumpur. Meanwhile, the Embassy has also cautioned family members of migrant workers in Nepal to remain alert of the fraud being carried out in the name of rescuing stranded Nepali workers. The Embassy has urged people not to hand over cash to unknown persons.

The Embassy has urged family members to also send cost for legal remedy of those in jail or facing prosecution in Malaysia only through the Foreign Ministry. RSS

Embassy rescues 23 stranded Nepalis in Malaysia

KATHMANDU: Malaysian authorities ruthlessly rounded up around 250 Nepalese migrant workers as part of its crackdown on illegal migrant workers.

Though the camppaign aims at clearing the nation of illegal migrant workers, Nepalese workers there reported that the authorities detained them without even giving them a chance to produce their papers.

Confirming the crackdown, Deputy Director at the Enforcement Division of the Department of Immigration (Malaysia) M Saravana Kumar said that the exact number of Nepalese and how many of them were illegal could be told only after dealing with the detained individually, The Himalayan Times reported on Tuesday.

Most of these Nepalese were reported to be detained from Kuala Lumpur, Klang Valley and Johor, Saravana informed.

If found living illegaly in Malaysia, the worker might be deported, imprisoned or fined, Saravana was quoted by saying adding that all of the detained will be produced before a public prosecutor.

Malaysia is working home for more than 4 lakh Nepalese. More than four lakh Nepalis are employed in Malaysia.

These immigrant workers had left working in their respective company demanding healthy food and payment and were forced to seek assylum in the embassy when local security forces attempted to detain them.

These workers had gone on strike since Saturday and even though the administration of the company had called them for talks, the talks were derailed after the five Nepalese negotiators were detained by the police.

These workers include some with no identity cards and immigration papers, some of them have been living their without any payment for the past six months, and some with undiagnosed ailments.

KATHMANDU: The Malaysian government is preparing for the biggest ever crackdown on around half million illegal migrant workers across the nation.

The crackdown will begun from Sunday and will be implemented by over one lakh 35 thousand security forces, Malaysian newspaper The Star reported.

The operation to be headed by the immigration officials will be backed by armed and unarmed security forces and will basically center in areas surrounding Kwalampur, Selengar, Penang and Johorbar among others.

Since the state has the capacity of detaining only 12 thousand illegal immigrant workers, preparations have been made to deport all illegal migrants instantly.

The initiative is part of the Malaysian government to legalize migrant workers in the country. Two years earlier it had started the Be Legal or Return Home program which colleced bio-metric data of all migrant workers in the country. Though many illegal migrant workers participated in it, most of them have not participated in it lately and updated their status.

Of the illegal migrant workers, most of them are Indonesians and rest of them are Bangladeshis, Nepalese, Burmese and Veitnamese the report said.

The crackdown will continue for the coming three months and officials said that they were hopeful to nail down every illegal migrant worker during this time frame.

KATHMANDU: Malaysia, one of the most frequented destinations by Nepalese job seekers, seems to be gaining a worst reputation. Reports have claimed that so far six thousand and two hundred Nepalese have gone missing in Malaysia.

Migrant Nepali Coordination Committee (MNCC), an organization which has been closely monitoring the dissappearance of Nepali migrant workers in Malaysia reported that these Nepalese went missing in Malaysia where they had reached for employment.

“Of these one thousand and 2 hundred are totally disappeared. Neither they are in touch with their relatives back at home nor anyone in Malaysia knows about them,” President of the MNCC, Mahendra Pandey said.

MNCC has been continously searching the records of migrant workers in Malaysia by visiting them and their relatives in Nepal.

The report further suggested that around five thousand Nepalese have married with foriegn woman and settled down in Malaysia.

And of these 2 thousand Nepalese are already married back at home and to avoid their families to know about these they have severed contact with their family, Pandey said.

90 percent of these Nepalese have married Indonesian girls, a report in Nagarik Dainik on Tuesday reported. Remaining 10 percent have married with Phillipino and other local women.

Most of them are hiding in Malaysia and some of them have resettled in the country of their spouse, the report said.

Kwalampur, Malaysia: The recent attack on Nepalese by Malaysian local youths have brought the ugly face within the exotic tourist destination and also the inability of the Nepali government to safeguard its citizens in foreign nations.

Though that attack and some videos went viral on the internet, the Nepali government failed to take the issue with the Malaysian government even at the diplomatic level. The government would have demanded security for its nationals working in various sectors of the Malaysia, but the government subsided the issue.

Though the government has forgotten what its more than half million of Nepalese go through every day in Malaysia, here are some representative voices that speak out the life of Nepali who lives in fear and terror to save the money that he has earned through toils and even his life.

On an early February morning, Santa Gurung of Tanahun was robbed of his assists and seriously injured when he was heading with his friend to his factory. The robbers which came in motorcycles and trashed him and his friends and took away everything they had. Since then he fears to get out alone or even double.

See the video down showing footage of Malaysian gangs attacked Nepali and how inhumanly treated the injureds

“We were walking on the footpath. Suddenly some motorcycles came from behind and snatched everything we had,” Santa said adding, ” my friend was seriously injured when he tried to resist the robbers”.

Everyday lots of Nepali nationals are robbed in Malaysia by local gangsters and yet the local police administrations remains mute. With such insecurity, they are even worried to send the money which they earn after lot of toils. Malaysia is one of the cheapest foreign employment destinations for Nepalese workers.

“One cannot be assured unless you have deposited your pay in the Bank,” Basu Kafle, a resident of Morang, who has working here since 12 years said adding, ” you walk in terror until you get back to your hostel.” The statement is indicative of the terror that Nepalese workers have to go through.

Jeevan Gurung of Syangja, who has been working in Shah Alam, has many encounters with these robbers. Elaborating on his terrifying experiences, Gurung says,” Robbers use motorcycles and cars. Its impossible to differentiate good ones from robbers. They are like common locals.” Another Nepali from Jhapa and working here for the past seven years, Bijay Mishra adds that the robbers hide their number plates when they attack someone.

Even if one does not have money its not an easy escape. The robbers thrash such Nepalese scolding them for walking without cash and assists. “If they don’t get money, they injure by attacking with weapons. Sometimes they mutilate your organs and can render you handicap,” Padam Adhikari of Sunsari, who recently faced similar conditions said.

Adhikari has stopped going out alone nowadays. “We walk in groups nowadays,” he said adding that the robbers return back with bigger gangs if they try to resist their robbery attempts. ” Many friends are in hospitals after they were injured in the resisting attempts.”

Aanshu Chaudhary of Dang was robbed within his first month of entry in Malaysia. ” They called me to them. When I was in front them, they robbed me on knife-point. It was terrifying,” Chaudary said still shaking with that experience which says would have taken his life.

These robberies are targeted especially towards foreign workers. They don’t rob local citizens. The disturbing factor while agreed by many was said by Govind Khanal, a resident of Morgan district.

” They remain updated on the pay day of the foreign workers and pick out foreign workers,” Khanal said adding, ” our local colleagues are never robbed or touched by them.”

In the recent days some companies have provided ATM facilities and in-house payment facilities to their workers. But still most of the companies lack these facilities and have made Nepalese and foreigner workers more prone to attack from the Malaysian gangsters and robbers.

While the Malaysian police does not seems to be willing to engage with these robbers, the Nepali embassy also has remained mute spectator of the bloody hardships Nepalese are facing here.

A report run by Nepal’s leading News Channels taps in Nepalese in Malaysia to elaborate on the attack, which the Nepali government denied of being taken place.
 

Currently, the jobless Nepalis workers have been kept at a hostel in Lelsen, Taman. The Nepalis workers have lodged an application at the Nepali Embassy in Malaysia last week. Most of the Nepalis have wished to return home, said Krishna Prasad Poudel, one of the victims.

Those Nepalis had left for Malaysia via a dozen of companies. The company was producing equipments of cell phones, lens and other electronic devices.