Kathmandu, July 5

The Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security (MoLESS) has selected 99 health check-up centres for migrants going to Malaysia.

The list of selected health check-up centres within and outside the Valley was issued today as per the decision taken by the ministry on Thursday. Prior to this, migrants were receiving their health certificates from only 39 check-up centres that were authorised by the government of Malaysia.

Meanwhile, this time the ministry has selected 99 health check-up centres out of 290 proposals under the criteria set by the Malaysian government. Along with the health check-up centres in the Valley, the ministry has selected health check-up centres in Kaski, Jhapa, Dhanusha, Sunsari, Banke, Chitwan, Dang and Kailali. Among the total selected centres, 12 of them are located outside the Valley.

In order to break the monopoly of some health check-up centres for a long period of time, the ministry had brought this policy for Malaysia-bound workers. The government has finalised the list of these health check-up institutions on the basis of the Malaysian government’s new health standard guideline that clarifies the medical requirements for migrant workers.

At present, Nepali workers are still not allowed to travel to Malaysia for employment. After the government cracked down on Immigration Security Clearance and One Stop Centre that had been levying additional charges on Nepali migrants for obtaining health certificates, the government had stopped sending workers from going to the Southeast Asian destination since May last year.

The memorandum of understanding on the bilateral labour pact between Nepal government and Malaysian government was signed in October last year. However, the process to send workers to Malaysia has not resumed yet. With this selection of new health check-up centres, the process of sending workers to Malaysia will speed up, as stated by the ministry.