Nearly 6,000 undocumented Nepali workers in Malaysia opt for amnesty to go home On 31 December Malaysia’s amnesty program for migrant workers called ‘Back for Good’ (B4G) came to an end. By paying RM700 ($170) and tickets back home, the scheme gave undocumented migrant workers an opportunity to return home without facing the penalty of […]
Agents in Malaysia have swindled a huge sum of money from thousands of Bangladeshi workers in the Southeast Asian country, who, over the last two years, had applied to regularise their immigration status, victims and researchers said. The exploitation of workers began after Malaysia declared a rehiring programme in February 2016 and appointed three private […]
Hasan had applied for a work permit nearly six months before the Malaysian authorities’ rehiring programme for undocumented foreign workers ended on June 30. He had all the documents to prove that, but those meant nothing to the immigration police. On September 3, the police detained him and dozens of others from Bukit Bintang area […]
It was around 9:00pm on September 11. After a day’s hard work, some of the 10 workers living in a makeshift house next to a large construction site in Malaysia’s Cyberjaya were preparing food while others were either having meals or chatting before going to bed. Suddenly, they heard the sound of four to five […]
Thousands of Bangladeshis are facing risks of arrest and deportation from Malaysia as its rehiring programme, launched two years ago to legalise undocumented workers, ends today. The risks have been heightened also as the new Malaysian government, which came to power last month, has recently decided to cancel work permits of the migrants employed for […]
More than 80% of our Sri Lankan emigrant labour are absorbed by the Gulf countries, according to the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment; 34% of these are women, mostly domestic workers who get paid subsistence level salaries of Rs. 20-30,000 over there. As I went about interviewing various potential labour migrants, migrants’ families as […]
Some hills in the Genting Highland look like the most remote part of Malaysia. Cut off from electricity and good transportation facilities, these desolate hills are home to Nepali migrants, mainly undocumented workers, who work as farmhands to eke out a living. Forty-one-year-old Top Chalami is one such worker. A permanent resident of Daga-Tumdada in Baglung district, […]
Thousands of Nepalis in Malaysia prefer to be undocumented than be exploited and mistreated by their official employers. In the shadows Panic spreads on the sidewalks of the Kotaraya area of the Malaysian capital as immigration police sweep down during one of their raids on undocumented migrant workers. There is a palpable fear in the […]
Roshan Bhatta looked hopeless during an encounter at the Nepalese embassy in Malaysia which is situated along Jalang Ampang road. Bhatta, an employee at a Rawang based company that produces paper bags, became undocumented after he continued to work in Malaysia without extending his visa after it expired two years ago. Bhatta, a resident of Basundhara-Kathmandu, wanted to return home to meet his sick mother. The process was proving much costlier than […]
When the sky is clear, Rajan Thapa, 37, stares towards Kula Lumpur from Genting Highlands, which is about 30 kilometers away from the Malaysian capital. For him, the mega towers of Kuala Lumpur are dwarfed by his own towering struggles. Rapid economic growth and neon-lights of the proud and prosperous city fail to illuminate his life. Born in […]