Nepal, Malaysia ink bilateral labor deal

Kathmandu / Oct 29: Nepal and Malaysia have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the supply of labour.

Minister for Labour, Employment and Social Security, Gokarna Bista and Malaysian Minister for Human Resources, M Kulasegaran signed the MoU.

Signing of the document by ministers of the two countries has paved way for supply of labour from Nepal to Malaysia, which was halted for six months.

The agreement on supply of labourers was reached after extended efforts. The Malaysian minister had arrived Nepal on Sunday for signing the MoU.

On September 2018, the Malaysian government had agreed that the Malaysian companies will bear all the costs incurred by the Nepali youths, and has accepted Nepal’s previous proposal of free visa and a free ticket to migrant workers. The amounts charged in fees by the recruiting agencies were a big burden for the Nepali youths coming from the poor economic background.

There are estimated 500,000 Nepali youths working in Malaysia, including undocumented laborers. On average, 300 to 400 youths were flying daily to Malaysia for migrant works before the process of hiring was halted in May.