Sending a letter to Malaysia´s Ministry of External Affairs this week, the mission requested the Malaysian government to check the atrocities meted out to Nepali workers on course of their departure to homeland.[break]
“We have sent a letter to express our concern over frequent incidents of atrocities meted out to Nepali workers at the airport,” Surya Bhandari, labor attaché at the mission, told Republica. “We are waiting for the response of Malaysian authorities.”
Migrant workers, including Nepalis, have been facing mistreatment at the airport while waiting for their flights to fly back home.
Bhandari said the mission raised concern as they were getting a number of complaints against security personnel filed by the victims.
Sources at the Nepali mission said airport security personnel were creating unnecessary troubles to migrant workers, by demanding passport, air tickets, cell phones and other belongings.
“In some cases, security personnel snatched away migrant workers´ belongings, manhandling them for no cause,” Bhandari said, quoting a victim worker. He, however, could not specify the reason behind the rising cases of harsh treatment to migrant workers by local security force.
Nepali manpower agents have expressed ignorance about the fresh cases of mistreatment meted out to workers at the Malaysian airport. Somlal Bataju, president of Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies (NAFEA), said he had no information about the growing incidents of inhuman treatment of migrant workers.
“I will talk to our mission in Malaysia in this matter soon,” said Bataju. He, however, added that such incidents may be the fallout from the recent protest by Nepali workers following the death of a Nepali worker inside a Malaysian company.
Malaysia, home to more than 400,000 Nepali migrants, is the most popular destination for Nepali workers and second largest destination after Saudi Arabia. A total of 112,982 workers had left for Malaysia during fiscal year 2009/10.
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