The government has formally invited a Malaysian government representative to discuss the crisis resulting from Nepal’s halting worker departures for Malaysia.

 

The Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security has sent a letter inviting Malaysian Minister of Human Resources M Kulasegaran to explore ways out of the logjam.

 

According to a Labour Ministry official, the invite was sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs a few days ago. “The Foreign Ministry will forward the letter to the Malaysian government,” the official said.

 

Departures of Nepali workers have been halted for over two months after the Nepal government closed down various agencies that fleeced them in the name of visa processing services.

 

The Malaysian government had raised concerns about Nepal’s decision to ban its workers from going to the country. Since then Malaysian authorities have been requesting Nepali authorities to relax the ban. During discussions with the Nepali side in Malaysia, the local authority had committed to finding a way to resume hiring of Nepali migrants and, if necessary, discussing the issue with the Nepal government. Minister Kulasegaran had shown interest in visiting Nepal to discuss the matter.

 

The Nepali side is preparing to use the opportunity to discuss various matters, including the issue of illegal agencies that cheated Nepali workers for years under a unilateral policy of the Malaysian government.

 

The visit could give both the countries a platform for concrete dialogue aimed at recruiting Nepali workers in a hassle-free manner.

 

The Malaysian minister recently talked about devising a mechanism for hiring Nepalis, possibly the government-to-government modality, saving workers from being cheated in the recruitment phase. An official said they look forward to discussing the G2G modality in detail and reach an agreement during the visit, which has yet to be agreed to.