Kathmandu, March 22

The Embassy of Nepal in Malaysia has rescued and repatriated 16 Nepali migrant workers, who were stranded in the Southeast Asian country.

According to a press release issued by the embassy, the Nepali youths, all males, were in the custody of two immigration detention centres of Malaysia for weeks as they could not afford air ticket to return home.

The embassy said it rescued six persons from Juru Immigration Detention Centre on March 14 and 10, and others from Johor Bahru Immigration Detention Centre yesterday.

The embassy had got them one-way air ticket from the budget provided by Foreign Employment Promotion Board.

Since Nepali workers living in detention centres for long are likely to be mentally disturbed,  the embassy took the initiative for their safe rescue and repatriation by bearing the air ticket cost from the budget received from FEPB, the release stated.

All the migrant workers had returned home a day after their rescue, according to the embassy. Meanwhile, the embassy warned that racketeers were collecting money from the Nepal-based families of migrant workers living in the custody of immigration detention centres of Malaysia on the pretext of their rescue.

“We have received complaints that some persons have been defrauding the families of migrant workers by giving false information about their kin’s status in Malaysia,” the embassy warned.

The racketeers often create a sense of fear, telling Nepal-based relatives of migrant workers taking shelter in immigration detention centre that they are in Malaysian jails for criminal offences and need money for release.

“We urge the concerned families in Nepal to contact the Department of Consular Service Services, Kathmandu, for further information about their kin living in Malaysian immigration detention centres. Families should not pay even a penny for their rescue and repatriation. The embassy provides them with one-way free ticket,” the press release stated.

On March 13, the embassy had rescued and repatriated 23 Nepali migrant workers from Malaysia. 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. The migrant workers are deceived in some form about the terms and conditions of their foreign employment.

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