Months of deadlock in migration of Nepali workers to Malaysia is likely to end soon as the government team has left for Malaysia for final rounds of negotiation on resuming labour migration to Malaysia.

A joint team comprising officials from the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security; Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs; and Ministry of Foreign Affairs left for Malaysia on Wednesday.

The team, led by Joint Secretary at the Labour Ministry Krishna Gyawali, also includes Joint Secretary at the Law Ministry Kabindra Gautam, and Joint Secretary at the Foreign Ministry Tapas Adhikari who oversees the South East Asia Division.

According to Prakash Dahal, joint secretary at the Labour Ministry, the team will be hold discussions with the Malaysian government representatives on Friday. “Our team will be discussing in detail with the Malaysian authority to resolve the current stalemate. This will be the final negotiation between the representatives of two countries to give final shape to the agreement,” said Dahal.

The two countries have already shared drafts of labour agreement. There have been three rounds of revision of the document, the Malaysian government in the third week of the August.

“With both the countries already incorporating a number of suggestions into the final draft, the teams will be pushing for an agreement,” said Dahal, adding that the document will be signed during a ministerial-level meeting.   

It will be the first such agreement between the two countries on migrant workers. A total of 485,000 Nepalis work in various sectors, according to the Immigration Department of Malaysia.  

However, departure of Nepali migrant workers to Malaysia have been affected since the third week of May after the government scrapped various fees levied by some agencies on Malaysia-bound Nepali workers during visa process. The government has decided to stop workers from leaving for Malaysia until the two governments reach an agreement to facilitate labour migration in hassle-free manner without the involvement of any syndicate or middlemen.