KATHMANDU: Malaysia has been facing an acute shortage of manpower since the past one year. The manpower shortage hit the labor market of Malaysia, the largest absorber of foreign migrant workers, after it stopped recruiting foreign migrant workers one year ago.

Employment providing companies are piling pressure on the Ministry of Human Resources of the Malaysia government to resolve the ongoing crunch of manpower at the earliest.

The Malaysia government in 2018 had stopped hiring foreign migrant workers citing overhaul as the reason in its recruitment processes.

Prior to this, around 90,000 foreign migrant workers used to go to the Southeast Asian nation every month, according to the records maintained by the Immigration Department of Malaysia.

Currently, only those, whose visa processes had already been completed one year ago but being deprived of entering the country, are going to Malaysia. The Malaysia government has received only 10 to 15 thousand foreign migrant workers since the past one year, according to the record.

The Ministry of Human Resources of the Malaysia government had introduced a new law with an aim to resolve the existing hassles surrounding recruitment processes of the foreign migrant workers four months ago.

According to the Immigration Department of Malaysia, various employment providing companies including factories, industries, have been relentlessly mounting pressure on the concerned ministry to create an environment conducive for bringing more than 80,000 foreign migrant workers a month.

The Ministry of Human Resources is also currently working toward arranging the workers as per the demand of the recruitment companies, said the Nepali Embassy in Malaysia. Nepal and Bangladesh are the two major countries that supply manpower to Malaysia.

A lot of foreign migrant workers working in two companies speak volumes about the acute shortage of migrant workers the Malaysian companies have been facing, currently.

Nepali Ambassador to Malaysia Udaya Raj Pandey said that the Malaysia government has eased the process for recruiting foreign migrant workers as per the demand of the Malaysian companies.

Nepal on October 29, 2018, had inked a labor agreement with Malaysia, paving the way for the Nepali migrant workers to go to Malaysia. Likewise, the Malaysia government has started the new visa verification process from Tuesday, said the Nepali Embassy in Malaysia.

“The Malaysia government will recruit foreign migrant workers in accordance with the previous law until the other arrangement is made,” The Sun Daily, a national daily newspaper of Malaysia, quoted Minister for Human Resources of the Malaysia government Kulasegaran as saying.

Nepali workers have not gone to Malaysia through the new labor permit for the last 15 months. A joint technical panel from the Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Security of the Nepal government and the Ministry of Human Resources of the Malaysia government on Thursday signed a deal on supplying Nepali migrant workers through the new labor permit from Sunday.

A foreign migrant worker engaged in two companies

A foreign migrant worker works for 17 hours a day in Malaysia, currently. Migrant workers have been working in two different companies due to staff crunch. Jitendra Limbu of Dharan had gone to Malaysia two years ago. The Malaysian government stopped recruiting foreign migrant workers a few months after he reached Malaysia. He is working in two different companies due to the shortage of staff in Malaysian companies, said Limbu.

Similarly, Rajan Gautam of Nuwakot, who has returned from Malaysia three days ago, shared that he worked for 18 hours a day until 15 months. These are only representative cases. A lot of foreign migrant workers working in two companies speak volumes about the acute shortage of migrant workers the Malaysian companies have been facing, currently.

40 percent foreign migrant workers illegal

Over 4 million foreign migrant workers are currently working in various companies in Malaysia, of which 40 percent are illegal, according to the Ministry of Law of the Malaysia government.

According to the Nepali Embassy in Malaysia, over 500,000 Nepali migrant workers have been working in the country, of which 150,000 are illegal. According to the record, around 100,000 Nepali migrant workers used to go to Malaysia in a month one year ago. Around 70 percent labor market of Malaysia depends on foreign migrant workers, according to the Malaysian government.