10 Nepali migrants rescued from Malaysia

Kathmandu, February 23

The Embassy of Nepal to Malaysia rescued 10 Nepali migrant workers stranded in the Southeast Asian country and sent them home safe yesterday.

Those rescued and sent home are Amar BK of Salyan, Nazir Ali Sai of Banke, Narayan Bahadur Khadka of Tanahun, Prakash Parkrin of Sindhuli, Bir Bahadur Magrati of Sankhuwasabha, Deb Bahadur Damai of Kathmandu, Harish Pun of Jhapa, Hawari Mohammad Rafik Miya of Parsa, Tika Bahadur Tamang of Kaski and Uknihang Limbu of Taplejung.

According to the embassy, the Nepali youths were kept in the custody of Kuala Lumpur-based Lenggeng Immigration Detention Centre for weeks as they could not afford air ticket to return home. The embassy had got them one-way air ticket from the budget provided by Foreign Employment Promotion Board.

“Since Nepali migrant workers living in detention centre for a long time are likely to be mentally disturbed,  the embassy has taken the initiative for their safe rescue and repatriation by bearing the air ticket cost from the budget received from FEPB,” it informed.

In addition to extracting high recruitment fees from migrant workers, recruitment agents and agencies use other deceptive and coercive ways to compel migrants to work in situations that abuse their human and labour rights. Migrant workers had been subject to some form of deception about the terms and conditions of their foreign employment.

According to a report published by Amnesty International, false promises about salaries and working conditions were usually coupled with other mechanisms of coercion applied by recruitment agencies that restricted migrant workers’ freedom of movement and compelled them to perform labour that they did not originally consent to.

The principle mechanisms of coercion applied by recruitment agents and agencies include confiscating migrant workers’ passports during recruitment processes, refusing to provide migrant workers contracts, or providing these contracts only at the very point of departure, and reporting migrant workers’ calls for help to the foreign employers accused of abusing and exploiting them, reads the report published by Amnesty Internationals.