Janak Raj Sapkota: Endless deception- Undocumented status after being humbugged and more trouble

Endless deception- Undocumented status after being humbugged and more trouble

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Janak Raj Sakota/Kula lumpur

October 7, 2017

Some hills in the Genting highland look like the most remote part of Malaysia. Cut off from electricity and good transportation facilities, these desolate hills are home to Nepali migrants, mainly undocumented workers, who work as farmhands to eke out the living. Forty-one-year-old Top Chalami is one such worker. A permanent resident of Daga-Tumdada in Baglung district, Chalami has not returned home for sixteen years. The only reason why he is stuck in Malaysia: his illegal status.

Like Chalami, thousands of Nepali workers who have been languishing in Malaysia without identity are forced to work as farmhands in extremely desolate areas, hundreds of kilometers far from bustling cities, just to keep them alive. Many other undocumented Nepalese working in big and medium-size companies in Malaysia face the similar predicament.

There are tens of thousands of Nepalese like Chalami in Malaysia who were rendered illegal due to lack of the passport or valid visa. According to Nepal's embassy in Kuala Lumpur, there are an estimated 700,000 Nepalese in Malaysia. Malaysia government's official record, however, shows that there are 485000 Nepali workers in the country.

This means around 200,000 Nepalese who remain unaccounted for could be working in Malaysia without legal status. On the last week of Ashad when Malaysian authorities intensified the crackdown on illegal workers many Nepalis were forced to go on hiding in the dense forest of palm trees. Palm trees are used to extract oil.

According to Santosh Chauhan, a Nepali national who works in a resort in Desharu beach of Joharbaru in Malaysia, many Nepalese had just water to drink while they were in hiding.

“Illegal workers are often duped by their agents, owner of the companies they working for or even their own friends,” Chauhan said while sharing the stories of undocumented Nepali workers living in Malaysia.

Rabilal Adhikari, Chairman of Nepali Labor's Unity Center, said that many Nepalis become illegal due to promises of agents. Many workers, Adhikari said, come to Malaysia paying an exorbitantly high price in hope of getting lucrative jobs. But they feel cheated when they do not get work, wage and facilities the agents promised in Nepal.

Adhikari said: “The workers leave the original works when they realize that their hard-earned saving is not enough to pay back the loan they borrowed from local moneylender while coming to Malaysia.”

Since most of the employers in Malaysia keep workers’ passport with them, many workers are robbed of their identity when they run away. Foreign workers without identity often become the victim of exploitations and abuses.

Losing passport is an easy way to get trapped---a situation where a worker can neither return home nor get jobs that are well paid. Illegal workers can be found almost everywhere in Malaysia; from the hustle bustle of Kaula Lumpur to Penang to Johor Baru to Genting highland to Cameroon highland.

Despite willing to return home, many Nepali cannot easily leave Malaysia because of loan they owe to landlords. Many are compelled to spend years with the fragile hope that they would one day make enough money to free their family from the debt trap.

Durga Neupane, a Nepali worker who has been working in a paper factory in Joharbaru of Malaysia for last four years, is badly missing his home. But he lacks money he needs to buy his freedom. Poor knowledge of local Malay language and inaccessible government service leave illegal workers at mercy of cunning agents to process their document to acquire exit visa. Besides paying fine to the Malaysian government, workers have to pay exorbitant fees to these agents for their service.

Due to his illegal status, Neupane has been denied insurance, healthcare, and other facilities by his employer. Neupane says he is not in a position to leave the company as it may expose him to police arrest and possible deportation.

“I know I am not getting wage I deserve. I cannot do overtime. I have little choice but to continue working here,” said Neupane.

In Malaysia, most workers have to work five days a week. But Neupane hardly gets any off day. Furthermore, there are no set working hours for him. The company’s manager, according to Neupane, decides how many hours he has to work.

“My situation is just like that of a bonded labor. I am neither in a position to return home nor earn enough by working here,” said Neupane. Most undocumented Nepali workers face similar predicament; they are not in a position to earn or leave Malaysia empty-handed.

An official at Nepal’s embassy in Malaysia claims that around 75 percent of Nepali migrants become illegal at some point of their two-year work tenure. Lack of reliable data makes it extremely hard to guess the exact number of Nepalis working without legal status in Malaysia.

Nepal’s embassy estimate of illegal workers is based on the number of applications it received from illegal workers for the travel document, a paper which undocumented workers use as the passport to acquire exit visa in the immigration. According to Nepal’s embassy, it issued travel pass to around 100,043 Nepalis in last three years. A total of 6683 Nepali workers had acquired travel document in past four months since Baishak. In other words, the embassy issues around 55 travel document on an average each day. When Malaysian authorities intensified the crackdown on companies employing illegal workers, up to 400 Nepalese were in various detention camps across Malaysia. There are 225 Nepali workers in detention camps at present.

Malaysian companies are tempted to hire illegal workers they are cheaper than documented workers. Hiring these workers put companies under no obligation to pay the levy to the government or abide by labor laws which mandate insurance, healthcare, and other facilities to workers. Many companies rather prefer to turn their workers illegal by not extending their tenure or allowing them to return home.

Ram Nibas Kori, who hails from Bijuwa of Nawalparasi district in Nepal, is one such worker who was rendered illegal by his company. Kori, who arrived in Malaysia four years ago, has been working without legal status for last one year. Kori, who works in a supermarket in Tilok, wanted to return home soon after the expiry of the contract with his employer. Instead of giving him permission, the company confiscated his passport as forced him to continue the job. This also prevented him from leaving the job.

“I am in a difficult situation,” said Kori. Without passport in their hands, workers like Kori are forced to seek the assistance of the agent to return home or find new jobs.

Like Chalami, Rajan Thapa of Gulmi also been working as a farmhand in Genting highland for last fifteen years, thanks to the false promise of his agent. Thapa was 21 years old while coming to Malaysia. He initially worked with a company which used to manufacture electronic products. Thapa was forced to leave the company after the Malaysian health authority declared him unfit for job citing some medical defect. He had received clearance certificate in Nepal.

Without a legal status in the foreign land, life became a nightmare for Thapa. He worked as a security guard at a casino for first few months. Since he was not getting promised facilities and working under constant risk of police arrest, Thapa eventually moved to Genting highland to work as a farmhand. Chalami and Thapa both have a long story to tell about their hardship and the desperation to return home. There is neither any government agency to listen to their stories, nor any end.

Kiran Bajgain has long experience of working in Malaysia without a legal status. He works as a driver in Kula Lumpur . Bajgain would not have lost his legal status had he not become a victim of his agent’s false promises. After arriving in Malaysia in 2005, Kiran started working in a furniture shop. He ditched the job after working 49 days because the work was harder than he had thought despite low earning. Kiran has done all kinds of works since 2005, all along dodging eyes of the law enforcement agencies.

Avoiding police arrest is easier said than done. Once during a sudden raid of police, Kiran had entered into sewerage to avoid arrest.

“I walked around a kilometer inside the sewerage tunnel and avoid arrest. Police arrested many of friends at that time,” said Kiran. Kiran said that all undocumented workers face similar hardship.

“Undocumented workers are forced to toil extra hard due to exploitative companies and agents,” said Kiran.

Thousands of undocumented workers like Kori and Thapa cannot openly access basic healthcare and remit their money to their families through formal channel.

Jay Jay Denis, a consultant for the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights, said Malaysian government’s apathy and indifference for widespread exploitation of workers. In one instance, Dennis said that a company employing 270 workers was keeping them in 20 containers.

“Workers are not even getting access to clean food, water and sanitation facilities let alone good wage. This is extreme exploitation of workers,” said Denis.

Dennis said that most of the employers in Malaysia confiscate workers’ passport although it’s against law to hold passport. The practice of holding passport, Dennis said, is one reason why workers become illegal.

“This long chapter of workers’ exploitation will not end until there is a government to government agreement,” said Denis.

In its new report on Nepali migrants titled Turning People into Profit, Amnesty international has also documented cases of forced labour, trafficking alongside other new revelations on condition of Nepali workers in Malaysia.

“Migrants who are trying to find work or borrow money from friends to return home instead become vulnerable to arrest, imprisonment or trial on immigration related charges.”

Adrian Pereira, executive President of North-South Initiative, an organization working for migrants’ rights, said that illegal workers are deprived of basic human rights despite compulsion to do risky works. Why is it happening? Because, according to Pereira, illegal workers are providing opportunities for companies that prefer cheap labour and layers of agents who are using migrants to earn money.

“Workers are easily trapped since the government mechanism that regulates the industry is weak compared to agents,” said Pareira.

In Ashad (June/July) this year, the Malaysian government had introduced rehiring program to legalize undocumented migrants. Though the program gave a rare opportunity to illegal migrants to change their status, only 20 percent of illegal workers benefitted from the legalization program. The leader of main opposition party in Malaysian parliament later described it as completely “ineffective program” introduced to collect exorbitant fees from illegal workers. The rehiring program was the third major initiative taken by the Malaysian government to legalize workers since 2010. These programs largely failed to bring desired results in decreasing the number of illegal workers.

“Rehiring program is a risky step taken by the government to reduce the number of undocumented migrant workers,” said Pereira.

Before rehiring program, Malaysia had introduced Three P and Six P programs targeting to flush out undocumented migrants. But neither of the two programs produced desired results particularly due to small enterprises that heavily rely on cheap undocumented workers and agents supplies such workers to their clients. Other factors including ineffective information dissemination and migrants’ lack of faith on legalization program played an equally bigger role in discouraging Nepalese to benefit from these programs. Chalami wasn’t even aware of introduction of the legalization programs.

“Many aren’t aware of the programs. Some migrants received the news once the deadline expired,” said Chalami.

Khagendra Neupane, Chairman of Malaysia chapter of Non-Resident Nepali Association, said that illegal migrants work in the precarious condition. He said that workers are tempted to turn illegal in hope of better income.

“Some workers have been cheated by agents. Whatever the case, nearly all undocumented migrants face the similar plight,” said Neupane.

Note: This reporting is originally published in Nepali language in Kantipur Daily (https://www.kantipurdaily.com/news/2017/10/07/20171007075915.html)

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Janak Raj Sapkota

Endless deception- Undocumented status after being humbugged and more trouble

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