SAGA from Malaysia

KATHMANDU, NOV 28 - The path they take at the end is tragic and leaves a grim tale behind: Phone calls from family members to send money back home to foot rising expenditures and pay back the loan, and frustration of being cheated by the manpower agencies that broker migrant workers' decent earning jobs. Many in Malaysia have chosen to kill themselves and the trend is steadily on the rise. “Dinesh Rai (name changed) su-ddenly stopped coming to my restaurant. Later, I came to know that he had committed suicide,” said Bishwo Rai, owner of Khukuri Restaurant in the Malaysian capital. “He had spent a huge amount of money to come to Malaysia, but couldn't pay back the loan as he was deceived by the manpower company,” said Rai. According to Rai, in the last few months Dinesh was very frustrated and frequently narrated his conversation with his wife back home. “As usual, his wife kept calling him up in Kuala Lumpur for money. He felt his wife would not understand the situation he was in.” On an average, one Nepali migrant worker commits suicide every month, according to the Nepali Embassy in Kuala Lumpur. Some 79 have committed suicide in the last five years, embassy sources said. “This year alone, as many as 16 suicide cases have been reported.” “Mental stress starts taking its toll as workers begin approaching foreign employment agencies and borrowing money,” said Karma Gurung, vice-president of the Non-Resident Nepalis' Association (NRNA) in Malaysia. The dreams of a majority of Nepali workers are shattered after they arrive in the country, said Gurung, who has been living in the Southeast Asian nation for 27 years. “Invariably, they never get the salary they are promised before leaving Nepal. That frustrates them on day one. The level of frustration rises, particularly when family members start pressuring the migrants to send money home to pay the huge loans that they borrowed before departure and to foot the increasing household expenditures,” said Gurung. At some point, maintained Gurung, everything becomes unbearable and the sole breadwinners of the family just decide to give in, taking the path of suicide. Nepali Ambassador to Malaysia Rishi Adhikari said hundreds of migrant workers throng the embassy every day, complaining that they are not paid what they were promised back home. “Soon, they are caught in a trap — neither they can earn enough money nor can they return home, “ said Adhikari. “Quite a few try to find solace in alcohol, in vain,” Adhikari said, asking workers to “think a hundred times before choosing foreign employment.”