Nepali migrant dies at workplace in Malaysia

Kathmandu, December 30

A Nepali migrant worker named Indra Prasad Bhattarai, 47, from Taplejung district was killed in Malaysia today after he fell into a meat-mincing machine in Malacca state, an official confirmed.

Bhishma Kumar Bhusal, director general of the Department of Foreign Employment, has confirmed that Bhattarai was killed while working in Malaysia. “We are coordinating with our Embassy in Malaysia to bring the body back.”

According to AFP, Bhattarai was working in a meat-processing factory, FB Food Industry, near Masjid Tanah in Malaysia when the incident occurred. “The victim was doing maintenance work with three other workers when suddenly the machine was turned on,” the AFP quoted a local authority as saying.

“The machine caught him at his waist. Because of his injuries, he died on the spot,” the local authority was quoted by AFP.

Moti Bahadur Shrees, deputy chief of mission at the Embassy of Nepal in Kuala Lumpur, said they were waiting for the post-mortem report from the local hospital. “After we receive the post-mortem report, we will begin the process of sending his body to Nepal as soon as possible.”

“We are in continuous contact with the Malaysian authorities concerned,” said Shrees, adding that as per the document presented by the deceased earlier at the embassy, he had reached Malaysia in 2016 on his own.

The Malaysian authority has said it took about 30 minutes to extricate Bhattarai’s body from the machine and that officials were still investigating the matter.

As per the data maintained by the Malaysian government, there are around 360,000 Nepali workers in Malaysia, with most of them doing security, construction and hospitality jobs.

According to the Foreign Employment Board under the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security, 821 Nepali migrant workers lost their lives in various labour destinations in the last fiscal year. Among them, 289 migrant workers were killed in Malaysia.

According to the board, 251 Nepali migrant workers have been killed in the first four months of the ongoing fiscal.

Malaysia hosts nearly two million registered foreign workers, who flock to the Southeast Asian nation in search of better work prospects and higher pay than in their native countries.

 

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