Prime Minister Balendra Shah spoke by telephone with his Malaysian counterpart Anwar Ibrahim on Tuesday, pressing for reforms to Nepal’s foreign employment system in Malaysia and calling for an end to syndicates and middlemen that he said have exploited Nepali workers.

During the conversation, Shah stressed the need to make foreign employment between Nepal and Malaysia more dignified, transparent and free from exploitation, according to the Prime Minister’s Secretariat.

Shah told Ibrahim that neither he nor his government accepted the syndicates and intermediaries operating in Malaysia’s foreign employment sector.

“We do not like syndicates and the middleman system, and this is not acceptable under any circumstances. It has put workers in trouble,” Shah was quoted as saying in a note issued by his secretariat.

Shah said such practices were impractical and unfair and called for joint action by the two governments to find a lasting solution.

He urged Ibrahim to instruct Malaysia’s labour minister to hold direct talks with Nepal’s labour minister and work towards eliminating the problems associated with intermediaries and syndicates once and for all.

Ibrahim responded positively to Shah’s concerns and said he, too, was opposed to the practice of middlemen.

The Malaysian prime minister pledged to immediately instruct his labour minister to coordinate with his Nepali counterpart and work towards resolving the issue.

“I am positive about resolving the issues that have emerged in the labour dispute. I will immediately instruct our labour minister to discuss the matter with his Nepali counterpart and find a concrete solution,” Ibrahim said, according to the note.

The telephone conversation comes amid long-standing concerns in Nepal over the costs, recruitment practices and role of intermediaries involved in sending Nepali workers to Malaysia.

Around 400,000 Nepali workers are currently employed in Malaysia.

Bangladesh has the largest number of workers in Malaysia, with around 900,000, followed by Indonesia with about 550,000. Nepal ranks third among the major labour-source countries.

Large numbers of workers from Myanmar, India and Pakistan also work in Malaysia.

According to the latest figures from Malaysia’s Home Affairs and Human Resources ministries, the country currently has around 2.1 million to 2.4 million documented migrant workers. Including undocumented workers, the total is estimated to exceed 3 million.