"Nearly 600 Nepali workers in Malaysia to get refunds for their recruitment fees", 13 July 2020

...As part of the WRP’s recruitment fee remediation programme, nearly 1,600 of its workers would be benefitted with the reimbursement package, a local media reported.

The move will also provide respite to nearly 600 Nepali workers employed by WRP Asia Pacific.

These migrant workers will be paid on a quarterly basis with each worker expected to receive a total payout ranging from Malaysian Ringgit (RM)4,547 to RM16,054 over the period of next 30 months...

To pay high fees for overseas jobs, workers often have to take loans. And once they reach their labour destinations, they are caught in a struggle to pay back the loans; for some, making it difficult to escape from the vicious cycle of labour migration.

The WRP’s decision to compensate its foreign workers has come after the United States’ Customs and Border Protection (CBP) imposed a ban on the company’s exports to the US last September over forced labour charges... 

The Southeast Asian country, which remains a major labour destination for Nepali migrants, produces two-thirds of global consumption of rubber gloves. The ongoing pandemic has seen skyrocketing of demand for gloves from Malaysian manufactures, creating new billionaires in Malaysia.

As per the International Labour Organisation’s fair and responsible recruitment standards, a migrant worker should be relieved of any such fees and other financial and workplace abuses, leading to forced labour and human trafficking...