Malaysia Keen To Take 'House Manage Workers' From Nepal

By Yuba Nath Lamsal KATHMANDU (Nepal), Aug 22 (Bernama) -- Malaysia has expressed its interest to take 'house manage workers' (domestic workers) from Nepal, already a second largest source country for migrant workers in Malaysia. Malaysian Human Resource Minister Richard Riot brought up this idea during a meeting and talks with Nepali Minister of State for Labour and Employment Tek Bahadur Gurung here today, Nepali officials said. However, no agreement was reached on the issue. Malaysian and Nepali Ministers held talks for 75 minutes in which the Malaysian brought up the proposal, said BP Siwakoti, secretary at the Ministry of Labour and Employment. After the meeting, Riot confirmed that he had made the proposal. "I proposed this idea as Nepalis are honest and dedicated to work". He also said that Malaysia and Nepal will soon sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to guarantee the safety and rights of Nepali workers. "Malaysia has been taking house manage workers from other countries and we are interested to take Nepalis for a higher level of house managing job," he said. "The service and facilities of these workers would be at par with the workers from other countries," he said. Malaysia and Nepal have agreed to form two separate committees at joint secretary level to draft an MoU on labour and 'house manage workers' proposed by Malaysia, Gurung said. At the meeting Nepal raised its concern over the rights, welfare and facilities of over 450,000 documented Nepali migrant workers in Malaysia. Nepal also raised the issue of safe repatriation of over 40,000 Nepalis who are stranded in Malaysia after losing their legal status, said Buddhi Bahadur Khadka, spokesman at the Ministry. --BERNAMA