Malaysia suspends recruitment of workers from Nepal — Kathmandu Post
Malaysia has suspended the recruitment of unskilled workers from Nepal due to a dispute over the procedure for selecting recruitment agencies. As Kathmandu Post reports, on October 1, Malaysia’s Ministry of Human Resources halted biomedical examinations for job candidates, effectively stopping the issuance of new employment visas.
Dispute over agencies
Visa processing under Malaysia’s foreign worker management system requires medical reports from 36 accredited centres in Nepal. The system operator, Bestinet, said registration for examinations would resume after 25 main recruitment agencies selected by Kuala Lumpur are activated. Each of them is to work together with ten auxiliary agencies.
Nepal’s Ministry of Youth, Labour and Employment objected to the unilateral selection of 25 agencies and refused to grant them legal authorization for exclusive operations. Minister Ramji Yadav proposed holding a Joint Working Group meeting on November 18–19 or December 2–3 to discuss the worker recruitment mechanism and the renewal of the bilateral memorandum.
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However, Malaysia’s Minister of Human Resources, Ramanan Ramakrishnan, said in a letter conveyed through diplomatic channels on October 6 that the country’s government would not change the current model. Malaysia will retain the selection of 25 main agencies and ten auxiliary agencies for each of them.
Proceedings in Nepal
At the same time, Nepal’s Department of Foreign Employment launched legal action against the owners of the 25 selected agencies. The agency said it had obtained warrants from the Foreign Employment Tribunal and ordered individuals for whom warrants had been issued and who had not appeared before the authorities to report to the department or police within 35 days. Failure to comply may result in further procedures, including the freezing of bank accounts and restrictions on exit permits.
In the previous fiscal year, Malaysia accepted 132,000 Nepali workers. According to Nepal’s central bank, Malaysia accounts for nearly 20% of remittances to the country, while about 400,000 Nepali citizens work there, mainly in the manufacturing sector.
