Bimal Khatiwada
Around one dozen Nepali women workers have been left in the lurch in Malaysia after their employers denied them salaries for long, according to a victim’s family.

One of the victims is Junu Chhetri from Chitwan. “The last time we communicated with Junu was three months after she had gone to Malaysia. We are helpless and cannot help her return back home,” said Junu’s husband Dhrona KC.

He said their repeated calls to the agents through whom Junu flew to greener pastures, to help her return have fallen on deaf ears. Junu had told him over the telephone that other women workers—Gyanu Rana from Bara, Sarita Lama from Ramechhap, Roma Thapamagar from Lalitpur, Omkumari Shrestha from Dhanusa, Prem Kumari Rai from Ilam and Devi Tamang from Okhaldhunga—were also facing a similar problem.

The victims told their families over the phone that they were denied salaries for the past four months and that their employers threatened to suspend them if they demanded the dues.

All the women, who had left for Malaysia through R&R Group by paying more than Rs 100,000 each, were working at Gold Choice Food Industries there. Agents Rajesh Aryal and Ram Chandra Adhikari were said to have helped the women fly to Malaysia.

The Chhetri family has accused the agents of sending the women illegally. “We had asked the families of the victims to discuss the process of bringing them back. However, the families are reluctant to come in contact,” Rajesh said.

Junu’s brother-in-law Junga Bahadur Tamang said the manpower company has been washing its hands of the incident, saying that it did not send the women to Malaysia.

Published on: 28 August 2013 | The Kathmandu Post