The Embassy of Nepal to Malaysia rescued 30 Nepali migrant workers, including a woman, stranded in the Southeast Asian country and repatriated them home yesterday.

 

According to a press statement issued by embassy today, the Nepali youths were kept in the custody of Kuala Lumpur-based Bukit Jalil 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 have been subject to some form of deception about the terms and conditions of their foreign employment.

 

According to a recent 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.