Kathmandu, March 24

The Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security (MoLESS) has informed that Nepali migrant workers will soon be able to travel to Malaysia for employment purposes as the Malaysian government has forwarded a new health standard guideline that clarifies the medical requirements for the workers.

The supply of Nepali workers to Malaysia has been halted since May last year after the government cracked down on Immigration Security Clearance and One Stop Centre that had been levying additional charges on Nepali migrant workers. According to ministry officials, those awaiting to fly to Malaysia for employment will be able to do so very soon.

Narayan Regmi, spokesperson for MoLESS, informed that the ministry has received a new health check-up guideline.

“The Malaysian government has addressed most of our concerns regarding health check-up.”

“This new guideline sent by Malaysia will help formally end the existing syndicate in the medical check-up sector for migrant workers aspiring to go to the Southeast Asian nation and is a huge breakthrough for the government,” he added.

As per the ministry, they have held consultations with experts from the Ministry of Health and Population to finalise the guideline. The ministry has said it will publish a public notice within this week for health check-up companies to apply to provide medical services.

According to the new guideline, government and private hospitals, nursing homes and other health institutions authorised by the government can conduct the check-up.

However, the government needs to prepare a list of such health institutions.

The process to send workers to Malaysia, which is one of the most attractive destinations for Nepali migrant workers, has been stopped also due to the syndicate of the health checkup institutions.

The two governments had signed a memorandum of understanding on a bilateral labour pact in October last year, but the process to send workers to Malaysia has not resumed yet. The government had been saying that it was unable to give permission to the workers to fly to the destination as the Malaysian government had not sent the new guideline on medical check-up.

As the government recently started issuing labour permits from the provincial level too, each province will have its own list of health institutions and workers can acquire medical check-up certificates through the provinces also.