Kathmandu, Nepal, September 3, 2019: The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the Minister for Labour, Employment and Social Security, Gokarna Bista and Malaysian Minister for Human Resources, M Kulasegaran on October, 29, 2018 has yet to come into implementation even though about one year has already elapsed.
Considering to the situation, the Nepal-Malaysia technical committee is going to hold a meeting on September 10 and 11 in order to ‘ensure’ employment security to the Nepali workers in Malaysia. The ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security has set the agendas to settle all the technical issues.
Nepalese labors had been depriving to go for Malaysia before six months of the agreement. The MoU signed with huge fanfare should have paved the way to supply of labor from Nepal to Malaysia. But no progress has reported yet thanks to the unwillingness shown from botht he sides.
As per the agreement Nepali migrant workers to Malaysia will not have to pay any fees, the Malaysian employer company will pick up the tab including airfare, visa fee and medical checkup and they will also be responsible for transporting workers to their destination within 6 hours of landing in Kuala Lumpur.
Likewise, employers have to deposit their monthly salaries in the bank account of workers by the 7th of every month and other facilities like bonus and overtime payment should not be lower than the minimum amount set by the Malaysian Government.
Similarly, additional security will be provided for female workers and the employer company, employers will be responsible for the health and security of the workers in case of physical or mental abuses.
The things incorporated in the agreement sounds nice but resulted negative consequence by barring the Nepalese workers to reach in the Malaysia. Hundreds of thousand Nepalese workers prefer to go Malaysia for the job.
Though foreign labor migration from Nepal has been rapidly accelerating in the past couple of decades and presently nearly half Nepali households have at least one member abroad or having returnee for foreign employment, the government has done nothing sufficiently for the safety and security of the migrant workers even though the remittances have significantly contributed to the development of the nation.
