As of Monday -- the day the October 31 deadline set by the Malaysian government for illegal foreign workers to leave the country expired -- around 3,500 Nepali migrants have obtained travel documents, required in absence of valid passports, from the Nepali embassy to return home.[break]
“Illegal workers should leave Malaysia as soon as possible,” said Lekhnath Bhattarai, counselor at the Nepali embassy in Malaysia, adding, “Travel documents are generally valid for two weeks. If some Nepali illegal worker is found in Malaysia after two weeks of obtaining travel document, Malaysian authorities can penalize him before deporting.”
On Monday alone, the last day of the deadline, the embassy was crowded with Nepali workers willing to obtain travel documents for leaving Malaysia. “Some 400 workers received travel documents today,” Bhattarai said, adding, “The crowd of workers approaching the embassy for obtaining travel documents was never so huge before.”
Malaysia has said that those illegal workers who return home before the expiry of its deadline -- issued as part of its extensive campaign for wiping out undocumented foreign workers -- will not be punished. In August, Malaysia had launched its biggest ever campaign to document all foreign workers, legal and illegal, under biometric system.
Around 33,000 Nepali workers were found working illegally in Malaysia. The Malaysian government has taken finger prints of all illegal workers. In Malaysia, those workers who have overstayed their visas or switched to some other employer-company are deemed illegal.
Those illegal workers who have not obtained travel documents will have to apply for legalizing their positions in Malaysia.
“Some Nepali workers applying for legalizing their status may fail medical tests or may not find satisfactory new job contracts,” Bhattarai said. “They will probably return home. So, the number of Nepali workers returning home during the amnesty program of Malaysia could go even higher.”
Kumud Khanal, general secretary of Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies (NAFEA), said, “Actually, no Nepali worker wants to return home. Only those who failed to find sponsors for legalizing their illegal status have unwillingly left Malaysia for Nepal.”
With the expiry of the amnesty deadline, hundreds of Nepali workers are struggling to arrange flight tickets for returning home.
Of the total number of Nepali workers who received travel documents, only a few hundred are believed to have left Malaysia long before the deadline expired.
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