Out of more than 2,000 Nepali migrant workers, who died while at work in Malaysia in the past 10 years, the families of only 20 percent were provided with compensation and insurance returns by their employers.     

The families of 80 percent of the Nepali migrant labourers who died there in the past decade have not been compensated for their loss, as the Malaysian law does not adequately protect foreign workers. According to the data provided by the Nepali embassy in Malaysia, only the kin of those workers, who had died in industrial or traffic accidents, are receiving compensation. Meanwhile, the families of those who have died of ‘natural causes’ are not eligible for compensation and insurance. And a majority of the deaths are attributed to ‘natural causes’.

 The embassy documents the causes of these deaths based on the reports given by the Malaysian authorities. The embassy officials say five Nepali migrants die in the country every week and most of deaths are attributed to sudden heart attack that, doctors in Nepal claim is unusual on young adults.

“Malaysian government do not have the provision to compensate workers who die from natural causes or suicide,” said  Amal Kiran Dhakal, labour attaché at the Nepal’s embassy in Malaysia, said. “It is mostly the families of those dead in industrial and traffic accidents who get the compensation.”

Stakeholders and rights groups claim Malaysian government have been employing structural discrimination against the migrants through its ‘weak and outdated’ laws to protect the migrant workers.

For migrant workers, the Malaysia has Workmen’s Compensation Act 1952, which Malaysia-based rights groups also have been demanding the country’s government to repel it and ensure better working condition for foreign labourers. In one report, Irene Fernandez, executive director of one of the rights groups, Tenaganita, says the Workmen’s Compensation Act ‘does not adequately protect foreign workers as the maximum compensation for workplace related accidents is only Rs 23,000- and that too, only in cases of permanent disablement’.

She pointed out that local workers, on the other hand, are covered by the Employee’s Social Security (Socso) Act 1969 which ‘offers a long-term disabilities pension scheme’.

Stakeholders and rights group in Nepal say every one should be entitled to compensation irrespective of the nature of deaths as the employer should take entire ‘liability of workers during his work tenure’.

“It’s a bitter reality that most workers are compelled to work under enormous pressure for 12 hours for petty wage. Nepali workers have been facing serious exploitation since the government there bans the rights to union. Everyone should be entitled to insurance benefits,” said Rishi Adhikari, Nepal’s former ambassador to Malaysia.

Adhikari said Malaysian government’s said there has been very little work to improve the deplorable living and working condition of migrant workers.  

Officials at the Ministry of Labour and Employment said families of migrant dying of non-accidental causes are also not entitled to compensation in the gulf countries. Around 35, 00 Nepali have died in Saudi Arabia and nearly 17, 00 have died in Qatar since 2000.  

“We had recently raised this issue with Qatar. There should be revision in their laws to provide insurance benefits to all deaths and they were positive,” said Buddhi Bahadur Khadka, spokesperson of the ministry.  

Some government officials and rights group say there is enough ground to raise question on the credibility of reports prepared by local police on the deaths of Nepali migrants. They said that the cause of deaths could have been manipulated.

“One particular point to doubt on the credibility of report is the number of industrial deaths have been decreasing every year while deaths causing from other factors are quadrupling,” said a government source. The embassy reports, which categorizes deaths that related only after 2005, show a mere 20 percent of total death resulted from road and industrial accidents while the rest has been broadly described as ‘chronic disease’, ‘suicide’ and ‘other causes’. Even disease like tuberculosis, gastritis, pneumonia, renal failure has been attributed to several deaths.

The deaths resulting mostly from sudden cardiac arrest, traumatic brain injury, spinal injury, heart attack, work related stress and traumas  have been mentioned as ‘other causes’ in nearly 800 deaths by the embassy.

Body count

Year     No. of Death

2003    101

2004    152

2005    189

2006    196

2007    252

2008    210

2009    183

2010    217

2011    280

2012    252

2013    341

Total    2373

SOURCE: Nepali Embassy in Malaysia 

Published on: 27 January 2014 | The Kathmandu Post