A Nepali a Day Dies Working in Malaysia
Dear friends around the world,
I was quite surprised by this article. Nepali and all foreign workers do not leave their country to work in another country because they are doing well or able to survive. Obviously they are not doing well and due to dire circumstances they must leave their beloved family, friends, culture, towns, homes and country to go somewhere else to work. Nepalese people and anyone are obviously human beings and have feelings like anyone else. They can feel pleasure and pain, hurt and disappointment and happiness and intense sadness. Put ourselves in their position where they are forced to go abroad to an alien culture, new people and difficult working conditions due to poverty. The pay is not very much either. If they stay home in Nepal, they have no money, if they go abroad the years of separation from family and friends does take a toll on their mind and the minds of their family. Once they are with employers, they are under the complete mercy of their employers due to language, visa and economics. So it is up to the employer to be kind to them. If they are mistreated, we add to the sufferings of another human being which is not necessary. Many times the man who is working in the foreign country is the sole bread winner and if something should happen to him, the whole family will become homeless back in Nepal. So many will suffer.
I think foreign workers of all backgrounds going to many countries suffer very much not just in Malaysia. I’ve heard of horror stories coming from many countries. I don’t know how accurate this article is regarding Malaysia, but I am sure there are many fatalities. No one wishes to lose a family member especially the sole bread winner. I guess the reason I reproduced this write up here is strictly for educational purposes and when we understand their plight, we can find it in our heart to be kinder to all foreign workers and all human beings. Speak nicely to them. Give them good food, clean decent place to sleep, proper clothing, water and toilets. Show them some respect, explain things to them and make them feel that your association with them for the next few years of work will be pleasant. Of course sometimes we do meet difficult and dishonest foreign workers who are not nice and that needs to be accounted for, but in general we depend on their labor very much and they depend on the salaries we provide. So we are interdependent. Why not be nice and make this work relationship pleasant. Just because we pay them does not make us better or superior. Be kind to them because they are far from home, alone, poverty stricken, unexposed and at our mercies. Be kind to them because it is a good example to show our children we are kind to all human beings no matter their background. Giving pain to others brings no benefit to anyone. Be kind to all beings no matter who they are.
This article is an eye opener indeed. May all beings not suffer and we never add to their suffering.
Tsem Rinpoche
A Nepali a Day Dies Working in Malaysia
Sonia Awale | Today 11:38 am
When the Nepal Embassy in Kuala Lumpur made the shocking revelation last year that nine of its migrant workers were dying every week in Malaysia, it surprised everyone, except perhaps the workers themselves.
For them, dying on the job in Malaysia has become a part of life.
Embassy records show that nearly 3,000 Nepali workers have died in Malaysia in the past 12 years, 166 of them in the five months between July and November last year alone.
For that period, nine Nepali migrant workers on average died every week in Malaysia, according to the embassy.
Most of them died from what health experts call Sudden Unexpected Death Syndrome (SUDS).
“Just a few months back, another fellow Nepali worker simply dropped dead while walking to work,” said Dilip Malla, 43, who is employed as a security guard in Damansara. “We later learned it was a heart attack. It was so sudden.”
Doctors and labour activists are puzzled at the abnormally high mortality rate from SUDS among Nepali overseas contract workers not just in Malaysia but also in Qatar, United Arab Emirates (UAE), and other Gulf countries.
Although research is sparse and autopsies are rarely performed on dead migrants, the high fatality rate is attributed to overwork in hot and humid conditions, excessively air-conditioned living quarters, worry about family back home, as well as stress from exploitation and low pay.
Reduced earnings due to falling ringgit
In Malaysia, an additional anxiety is reduced earnings due to the falling ringgit, which has continued to plunge as the net petroleum exporter grapples with low oil prices.
Nearly 20 percent of Nepal’s 28 million population works abroad: mainly in India, Malaysia, and the Gulf, and remittances from workers abroad makes up a quarter of the country’s GDP.
With 700,000 employed in plantations and factories, Malaysia has the highest number of Nepali migrant workers and the earnings they send home makes up 40 percent of Nepal’s total overseas remittances.
But the country also registers a disproportionate number of deaths of Nepalis.
About 1,500 workers fly out of Kathmandu every day, and this number is increasing because of the earthquake in April 2015, as political instability and the five-month Indian blockade of Nepal brought the local economy to a standstill.
Aegile Fernandez, programme director at Tenaganita which defends rights of migrant workers in Malaysia, says death of foreign workers are often overlooked despite the shocking figures.
“We see high suicide rate and several cases of sudden death. The government should be more transparent and in-depth research should be carried out. Unless that is done, we won’t know why they are dying,” she said.
A government hospital doctor who treats migrant workers, who asked not to be named, said most sudden deaths are a result of cardiac arrest.
“However I can’t say for certain what is causing the sudden deaths. We never carried out any detailed investigation,” she said.
Though she added that the influx of migrant workers has brought diseases like tuberculosis (TB) and malaria, which are rare in Malaysia.
Last year, the Malaysian government decided to withdraw subsidies to non-citizens for medical fees, and increased medical fees for non-nationals by 30 percent. The Health Ministry also puts a limit on prescription drugs for foreigners.
Public health experts however argue that this actually adds health risks to Malaysians, even if it does save the government some extra expenditures.
Besides infections, migrant workers are also not aware of the precautions they need to take in the extreme climate conditions, which differ from temperate Nepal.
Working conditions in plantations and factories are often harsh, with the dangers of dehydration and inadequate nutrition.
“The Nepalis might not be used to such long hours of work, under scorching heat but they aren’t also given proper health care and training beforehand,” added Aegile.
Work up to 18 hours a day
Shamser Nepali who runs clinics in Kathmandu that provide health check-ups to migrant workers said: “In Malaysia, migrant labourers work up to 18 hours a day and drink cheap spurious alcohol before they sleep and they die in their sleep.”
Last January, a riot broke out at a plywood factory in Kedah when Nepali workers protested the death of a colleague who had difficulty breathing and died because he wasn’t taken to hospital in time.
Protesting workers were arrested and five deported. A month earlier, two Nepalis in the same factory had also died of SUDS.
In another case, more than 1,000 Nepali workers protested at the factory in Johor when a fellow worker died due to lack of health care last August. Some 50 workers were arrested and most of them sent back to Nepal.
“The rate at which Nepali workers are dying abroad is alarming because they are too young to die,” says Ganesh Gurung, Nepal’s foremost expert on migration and remittance economy.
“Our mortality rate could be high because of deaths of new-borns, children, the elderly, and chronically-ill patients. But if young and healthly people die at this rate, we must find out why it is happening,” he said.
Figures show that most of the deaths of Nepali overseas contract workers occur in Malaysia.
Between July 2014 and July 2015, a total of 1,002 Nepali workers died, with 425 Nepali in Malaysia. Second was Saudi Arabia and third, Qatar, according to figures from the Foreign Employment Promotion Board in Kathmandu.
Qatar, which has 550,000 workers from Nepal, had only 178 deaths but more than half of them due to “sudden heart attacks”.
The Qatari authorities have said that this corresponds to the national average for heart attack deaths in Nepal, but public health experts argue that the fatality rate is disproportionate because they involve healthy young males and is nearly 10 times higher than the death rate from heart attacks for that demographic back in Nepal.
In any case, as Malaysia continue to play host to thousands of job-seeking Nepali, something may need to be done so that the country only contributes to the earnings remittance, and not to an ever increasing death rate.
Source: https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/327999
For more interesting information:
- Nepal Disaster 2015
- Rinpoche personally sets up computer for Nepali boys
- Nepal Pilgrimage full videos
- Rinpoche and Bangladeshi workers
- Nepal is the land of spirtuality, beauty and Mystery
Please support us so that we can continue to bring you more Dharma:
If you are in the United States, please note that your offerings and contributions are tax deductible. ~ the tsemrinpoche.com blog team
It is shocking to know that 1 Nepali a day dies working in Malaysia. There are so many foreign workers in this country and this actually show badly as how we care for the workers. Foreign workers are here helping our country to fill up the vacancy in construction, agriculture, industrial and many other segments. Without them we may not be able to achieve our development target as we need huge human resources. Therefore, we have to take care of their well being and not abuse them as many unscrupulous employer will take advantage on them in order to manage cost. They are human beings just like us. We should have mutual respect of each other. Therefore I hope we Malaysian do not discriminate foreign workers and don’t look down on them.
Most of the Nepali died from (Sudden Unexpected Death Syndrome) There was never been proper investigation done on these cases, if your a foreign worker you are not human as simple is that who cares. our Nepal government just sucking money from worker only. Just said sudden death how can be just soo simple as like that.The high fatality rate is attributed to overwork in hot and humid conditions, air-conditioned living quarters, worse then compared other country , on top of that loans, family and stress.
I am been very lucky to in kechara dharma center. we have more then 30 Nepalese who work here. Rinpoche very kindly takes care of us and make cure we have enough money, good food,good rooms, medical and most importantly gives us dharma . Rinpoche personally takes care of us with beautiful Malaysian. we are always be very grateful to Rinpoche and kechara…
I have never heard of anyone speaking up about the rights of Nepalis until Tsem Rinpoche mentioned it in the year 2005 during a visit to Nepal.
Not many people speak about the immigrant workers or their welfare. Immigrant workers are not keen to work in countries other than their own, if they could have helped it. They do not have a choice hence they do what must be done and that is find employment outside of their country.
Having the highest death rate of Nepalese workers in Malaysia is certainly not something that we should be proud of. Based on the report, most of the death toll are from young adults with causes related to poor health & mental well beings.
As a host country & employers of these foreign workers, we are responsible to take care of both their physical & mental well beings by providing the proper working & living conditions, safety, tools, training & etc. in order to achieve a win-win situation that will benefits both parties & countries in the long term. They are our fellow human being though from different country, colour, culture & background but deep down inside we all are the same, wanting happiness & not suffering. From a spiritual point of view, we must treat them with respect, loving kindness & care which can help them improve their emotional wellbeing to relief stresses from both work & worrying of their families, love ones & friends back home.
I sincerely hope that all employers would look into these issues & resolve with immediate efforts.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing & reminding us to always show care & kindness to those in needs.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this article. The death rate of the Nepali workers are alarming. I think our Malaysian government should do some investigation and find out the reason behind their deaths. Like what Rinpoche said earlier, employers too play an important part. They could talk nicely, give them proper food and place to stay so that they can work properly. Maybe employers should send their workers for monthly or half-yearly health check-up. Rinpoche also said before that every being has been our mothers. That is why, we need to be nice and kind to everyone we meet.
With folded palms,
Vivian
Alarming and sad to know that a Nepali a day dies working in Malaysia.Nepalese people and anyone are obviously human beings and have feelings like anyone else.They are forced to leave their home country,to go to a new country for a living .Most of the death is attributed to overwork in hot and humid conditions, poor living quarters,low pay as well as stress from exploitation and in accident while at work.The employer at times treated the foreign workers badly,which should’nt happen,They should be well treated and given better working condition.To be kind to all human beings no matter who they are.Well said by Rinpoche.Hope the government can do something to help in reducing the
deaths of Nepali rate down.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this article .
I fully agree with Rinpoche that we need to be kind towards foreign worker because they literally risk their lives and work in a foreign land with many unknown and at the mercy of their employee. Given a choice, nobody would want to be separated from their family, go to an unknown place and work in harsh condition.
I have heard stories of dishonest foreign worker, but I think there are even more stories of unscrupulous employers. Like the case of Kedah incident related in the article, may be the workplace is not hygiene or toxic or something else that may have caused the high death rates. Government authorise should setup investigation teams to make sure the environment is in a good condition for the foreign workers, both physically and mentally. Why? Because it is interdependent. We depend very much on their labor everyday.
I think the bottom line here is we should be kind to foreign workers.
I often see foreign workers perched high on top of advertisement poles and try to spot if they have their safety harness on and realize there are none. I grimace everytime I see that. I think it’s either their employers don’t care since their life is cheap, or the workers themselves have a poor safety culture and refuse to wear them. Maybe both. I remember in my workplace, when we set up new plants in some less developed countries, it was an uphill battle trying to train the local workers to follow the work and safety culture of a multinational co. All procedures and facilities were provided for their safety but they just refused to use them, taking short-cuts instead.
The problem is an intricate one, not just a matter of employers ill-treating their foreign labour.
The local people don’t want to touch the 3D jobs. This is true not only in Malaysia. You see the same thing in Western countries. You have migrant workers taking over and more and more of them come to seek greener pastures. At some point, the locals raise the alarm. Like, if you go to China town these days, it is no longer China town. You see this pattern in the recent case of Brexit as well as the racial rumblings in Australia.
As concern grows, the governments enact new policies on migrant workers and it becomes more difficult or costs more to hire. Then they have a way around this problem, illegal migration. Human traffickers then prey on those people hoping to migrate to greener pastures. These people are then exploited. They have no recourse as they were illegal in the first place. It is a very unfortunate situation and not easy to solve.
It is very sad to know that foreign labors who came to work in Malaysia suffer physically and emotionally. Premature death among Nepalese workers are high as a consequence of the long working hours combined with poor living conditions. While Malaysians are the philanthropists that everyone see us as, in actual, most of us are indifferent towards the maltreatment of foreign labors working in this country. Therefore it indirectly endorses exploitation of people of a different race, religion and creed. Thank you for this article that brings awareness to the plight of foreign labor in this country.
This is a side of Malaysian employers that we didn’t know or didn’t want to know. These segment of people who employ Nepalese workers are looking to exploit them and worse of all, do not provide adequate healthcare and decent living conditions.
We often pass judgement with people from other countries who exploit others or who are cruel towards others. But people rather turn a blind eye on our fellow countrymen who do the same. Very sad to read this.