He told the Dewan Rakyat that a key matter for discussion would be the role of a local company linked to the recruitment of workers from that country.
Replying to a supplementary question from Ismail Mohamed Said (BN-Kuala Krau) during the ministers’ question time today, he said what had become an issue was the outsourcing conducted by the company.
He added that the matter would be scrutinised, and action taken in the event of any irregularities.
Ismail had wanted to know whether the recent withdrawal of approval by the new government of the Temporary Employment Visit Pass (PLKS) had prompted the Nepalese government to stop sending its citizens to work in Malaysia.
The Nepali Times news portal, in a report titled “Kleptocrats of Kathmandu and Kuala Lumpur”, alleged that a nexus of politicians, businessmen and bureaucrats in Nepal and Malaysia had made huge profits from vulnerable Nepali migrant workers seeking work in Malaysia.
As a result, the Nepalese government reportedly put an immediate stop to its citizens coming to Malaysia for jobs as it was unhappy with the tight immigration rules imposed on the potential migrant workers.
This was said to include the monopoly of a private company in conducting security and health checks as part of the visa requirements.
Kulasegaran said 1,747,154 foreign workers had been issued PLKS as of June 20 this year, 378,577 of whom came from Nepal. This was the second highest number of workers after those from Indonesia.