Says move is against Malaysian embassy's decision to hike visa fee.

The Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies (NAFEA) has scheduled protest programmes from Monday against the Malaysian embassy, as the revised visa fee for Malaysia has significantly gone up by around six times and is likely to go further up in the near future.

The embassy has outsourced the visa processing responsibility to ‘Malaysia VLN Nepal’ due to which the visa fee has increased from Rs 700 to Rs 3900, effective from November 1.

“On Monday, we are going to organise a peaceful sit-in programme with black armbands and banners at the parking lot of the Malaysian embassy in Pulchowk,” said the president of NAFEA Bal Bahadur Tamang. “In the next phase, we will hold meetings with the International Labour Organisation.”

As per data provided by the Department of Foreign Employment, 25,912 foreign job seekers have migrated to Malaysia since November 1. It means the embassy has collected around Rs 101.10 million, which was supposed to be at around Rs 18.14 million prior to November, making a difference of Rs 82.96 million.

According to Tamang: “The embassy is still charging Rs 700 as visa fee which is mentioned in the visa itself but for the additional Rs 3200 that has to be paid, the embassy does not provide any receipt for it, which is a matter of concern.”

The simmering tension between NAFEA and the embassy increased when the embassy decided to further increase the ‘outsource visa processing work’ by Rs 3200 to Rs 7100 through a company called FOSA and medical check-up cost has been raised by approximately Rs 1500 to Rs 4125 through a firm called Bestinet.

In the near future, FOSA will collect passports from the agencies and will submit them to the embassy, and levy a charge of Rs 3200 for this. On the other hand, medical check-up centres in Nepal have been compelled to install a software called ‘Bestinet’ due to which the fees for medical check-up will rise. It is said that the Nepal Health Professional Federation is exerting pressure on medical centres to install the software developed by Bestinet — a Malaysian IT firm.

If the embassy does not roll back its decision then in the near future a Nepali foreign job aspirant wanting to go to Malaysia will have to pay Rs 11,225 in total, against Rs 6525 that they are paying at present. On average, more than 800 Nepalis go to Malaysia for jobs every day. Taking this fact into account, the Malaysian embassy will collect around Rs nine million a day simply through its outsourcing mechanism.

Nepali migrant workers in Malaysia earn a minimum salary of 600 Malaysian ringgits, which is equivalent to Rs 18,900. Since January 1, 158,154 Nepalis have migrated to Malaysia for employment.

Published on: 23 December 2013 | The Himalayan Times