KATHMANDU, July 8: Malaysia, the largest destination for employment based on the number of labor permits issued so far, will not allow Nepali employees to enter the country this year.
According to Dipak Dhakal, labor attaché at the Nepali Embassy in Malaysia, Nepalis are likely to go to Malaysia for employment only after 2022 due to the growing COVID pandemic and lack of vaccination against the disease. "It is almost certain that Malaysia will not bring in foreign workers, including Nepalis, until next December," he said on Wednesday. “It is only our presumption that the recruitment of foreign employees will begin from 2022.” Although the country imposed a lockdown in March last year, the infection rate is still high in Malaysia.
Stating that the situation in Malaysia is getting worse due to the pandemic, Dhakal said that the number of people receiving two doses of vaccine against COVID-19 is low so far. "So far, 9.3 million have been vaccinated with the first dose and 2.7 million with the second dose," he said. "Many expect the situation to improve after December." With the view of global pandemic, Nepal government had halted the service of foreign employment for its citizens in the beginning. However, this time the Malaysian government has barred foreign nationals from entering the country for employment.
It has been almost a year and a half since employment to Malaysia was put into halt for Nepalis. He said that the Malaysian government has not taken any initiative to bring in foreign workers recently. Although the Department of Foreign Employment started giving labor permits to those who want to go for foreign employment including Malaysia a few days ago, the number of workers getting labor permits has not increased as the employers have not demanded workers.
According to the department, out of the 5.5 million people who have received labor permits for all destination countries so far, about 1 million have received it for employment in Malaysia. Dhakal said that about 160,000 of those who have obtained labor permits are in Malaysia at the moment. "It is estimated that there are many Nepalis in Malaysia who don’t have the required documents," he said.
Manpower entrepreneurs, on the other hand, estimate that there are around 300,000 Nepalis in Malaysia, staying both legally and illegally.