Duped Deported And In Debt Nepal S Migrant Worker Trap

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This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center.
When Ajay Kumar Yadav from Siraha, Nepal, headed to Malaysia to begin a new job on Jan 30, he hoped it would be the start of a better life for those he left behind.
He hoped to quickly repay the loan he’d taken just to leave the country, so that he could marry off his two daughters and provide a good life for his wife and parents.
But it did not take long for all his plans to go up in smoke.
Like many others, Yadav was set up to fail by a system of dubious health check-ups and bogus medical reports.
Early in January, Ayaan Consultancy Services (ACS), a migrant worker consultancy in Kathmandu, called him to their office for a health checkup.
There, he and three others had their blood drawn and, after a few days, were issued medical reports from Unicorn Medical Centre (UMC) giving them a clean bill of health.
However, once he was in Malaysia, the company he was assigned to ordered another round of medical tests.
This time, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis, resulting in him being declared unfit for work and repatriated.
“Another friend of mine who went with me also received an unfit report,” Yadav said.
“In Nepal, only blood was drawn, whereas in Malaysia, urine was also tested. An X-ray was also carried out after three days,” he added.
Now out of a job, Yadav is staring down a mountain of debt with no income.
He said that an operator with ACS demanded NPR277,000 (RM8,500) to send him to Malaysia.
Of this amount, NPR250,000 was deposited into an ACS employee’s account, while another NPR25,000 was given in cash to the operator.
Additionally, Yadav had to pay NPR2,000 for the health check-up.
All this is despite the labour agreement between the governments of Nepal and Malaysia stating that the migrant workers going to Malaysia do not have to pay any fees.
On top of this, it was discovered that UMC was not listed among the health institutions selected to conduct health check-ups for migrant workers travelling from Nepal to Malaysia.
Another victim of this system was Baman Shrestha (name changed), who was diagnosed with diabetes but was convinced to hide it by AMC, the migrant workforce company that wanted to ship him off.
He said AMC told him, “Don’t worry, if you control your diet for a few days, even if you get tested abroad, the report will come out fine.”
Within a few days, the manpower company handed him a report issued by Sudha Medical and Diagnostic Centre (SMDC).
He was charged NPR35,000 for the bogus medical report - far above the NPR6,500 cap for health examinations for migrant workers set by Nepal at the time.
The smokescreen, however, did not work. After conducting three tests upon reaching Malaysia, Shrestha’s diabetes did not go away.
Ultimately, he was deemed unfit for work and had to return home within two months.
Companies issue denials
When contacted, ACS owner Upendra Prasad Shah denied responsibility for how Yadav’s medical tests turned out, shifting blame to UMC.
UMC, in turn, simply said: “Sometimes mistakes happen”.
Despite shifting blame, ACS said it has reached an agreement with the Foreign Employment Department and Yadav to compensate the victim.
However, Yadav claimed the cheque was backdated by two months, preventing him from accessing the funds immediately.
Further, he said the amount does not cover his loan fully.
He doubts the cheque’s validity and fears it may not be honoured. If the cheque fails to clear, he plans to file a fraud case with the police.
In Shrestha’s case, SMDC denied conducting any health checks for workers going to Malaysia.
Instead, its CEO Madan Khanal claimed manpower companies tend to make fake reports themselves.
The Pulitzer Center is still trying to reach AMC. The company’s name has been abbreviated pending a response.
Covid-19 vaccination card extortion
The exploitation of Nepalese workers didn’t end with health checks.
During the pandemic, agents colluding with government employees ran a scheme to issue fake vaccination certificates.
For many Nepalis - especially those in rural areas - the Covid-19 vaccine commonly administered was Sinopharm’s vero-cell vaccine.
However, those seeking work abroad were convinced by unscrupulous agents that they needed the Johnson & Johnson shot instead.
But rather than giving them another vaccine dose, the agents offered to issue fake certificates in exchange for bribes, as detailed by Ranjit Kumar from Jaleshwar Municipality to the Pulitzer Center.
“After paying NPR1,500 to an agent of a manpower company in Kathmandu, they brought me a certificate of having received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine,” said Ranjit, who went to Malaysia in 2022.
Rajendra Prasad Paudel, the former chief of the IT department at the Health Services Department, estimates that 35 to 40 percent of the QR-coded Johnson & Johnson vaccination certificates issued from Nepal could be fake.
Understaffing leads to graft
With dubious practices allegedly rampant, the Nepalese government has set up mechanisms to tackle such issues and facilitate reparations to victims.
In the fake Covid-19 certificate case, the government has cracked down on websites offering such services.
However, when it comes to health checks, the system doesn’t always work as intended, mired by understaffing and alleged corruption.
Section 72 of Nepal’s Foreign Employment Act states that if a person who has gone for foreign employment has to return home due to a false health examination report, the institution that conducted the health examination shall have to bear the cost of their repatriation.
The Foreign Employment Department has even set up a special committee to investigate such claims.
However, Bhimsen Kafle, investigation and case branch director of the department, said that even though 20 to 60 complaints are filed every day regarding workers being defrauded, there is not enough manpower to handle these complaints.
“There is a lot of volume of workers’ complaints, but only four officers are working in this regard,” he said.
The situation is such that Yadav only received his “compensation” from ACS recently, despite having lodged his complaint with the department on April 1.
The department’s spokesperson, Tikaram Dhakal, said he is not aware of whether the health institutions conducting health check-ups for migrant workers are being monitored or not.
“It’s better not to ask me about this issue,” he added.
As for Nepal’s Health Ministry, its spokesperson Dr Prakash Budhathoki said that screening potential migrant workers was not under its purview.
“All medical centres that provide medical services during foreign employment are not listed under the Health Ministry. All those medical centres are listed only with the Foreign Employment Department, under the Foreign Employment Ministry.
“The Foreign Employment Department does all the work of setting their standards and taking necessary action against the medical centre.
“We are also trying to link the medical centre that conducts medical examinations of workers going for foreign employment to the Health Ministry. But we have not been successful,” he said.
Health panel syndicate
Beyond these factors, one major obstacle in the pursuit of justice, workers allege, is the influence of businesspersons in the department’s special committee, particularly Kailash Khadka.
Khadka has been a specialist member of the Foreign Employment Department’s special committee for 16 years.
The organisation he heads - the Nepal Health Professionals Federation - has considerable influence in the migrant worker recruitment process.
In 2013, Khadka, as the president of the health federation, signed a deal with Bestinet Sdn Bhd to set up a panel of health institutions approved to conduct biometric medical tests to vet the health of Nepal’s migrant workers.
Bestinet Sdn Bhd, a private company appointed by Malaysia’s Home Ministry, oversees key systems tied to migrant worker recruitment, including medical screenings and biometric data collection.
Dundu Raj Ghimire, spokesperson for Nepal’s Labour, Employment, and Social Security Ministry, said the Nepalese government is not involved at all in the selection process.
Two years after this deal was inked, details emerged alleging that Khadka had extorted up to NPR5 million per institution that wanted to be on the biometric medical testing panel.
He is accused of netting NPR200 million in total from 38 institutions.
During an investigation conducted by the Pulitzer Center, a medical entrepreneur claimed she paid Khadka NPR5 million in cash for the biometrics software needed to be in the panel.
“Later, when I said I wouldn’t work that way, I got the money back,” the woman who wished to remain anonymous claimed.
“But all other medicals paid NPR5 million each. Those who couldn’t bargain paid up to NPR7 million,” she added.
Another medical entrepreneur, Khimraj Adhikari, also claimed that transactions equivalent to such an amount took place at that time.
“Even now, only 36 health institutions have been selected, creating a ‘syndicate’. This scam should be immediately investigated,” he said.
Both Khadka and Bestinet have not responded to requests for comment.
Cracking down
The Labour, Employment, and Social Security Ministry said they are in the midst of taking enforcement action to ensure that medical centres are up to scratch.
This includes requiring labs processing migrant workers to have adequate equipment.
“We have already decided that if medical centres do not have adequate equipment and space, we will cancel their registration,” Ghimire said, adding that centres must meet standards within two months.
Additionally, they are working to sync biometric data collected by Bestinet with the Nepalese government’s database.
But even if the health check problems are solved, it’s just a drop in the bucket of problems that Nepali migrant workers face when seeking livelihood in Malaysia.
Investigations by Malaysiakini in 2023 and 2024 showed that migrant workers, including those from Nepal, are still falling victim to migrant worker quota scams run by Malaysian companies, where companies sell or rent their quotas or workers to other firms for profit.
Such schemes are abetted by corrupt civil servants, leaving migrant workers vulnerable in both their home country and Malaysia. - Mkini

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