The National Human Rights Commission of Nepal (NHRC) and Malaysia’s Human Rights Commission (SUHAKAM) have renewed a three-year agreement to investigate and monitor rights violations involving Nepali migrant workers and improve their access to justice.

The memorandum of understanding, covering 2026–2028, was signed on Wednesday at SUHAKAM’s headquarters in Kuala Lumpur by its chairman, Mohd Hishamudin Md Yunus, and NHRC chairman, Top Bahadur Magar.

Under the renewed agreement, the two commissions will work together to investigate human rights violations involving Nepali workers, monitor conditions in detention centres and examine factors contributing to the high death rate among migrant workers.

They will also push for policy measures to address recruitment fees and the risk of forced labour, while working to expand Nepali workers’ access to social security.

The agreement gives particular attention to protecting women migrant workers employed in unsafe and informal sectors. It also calls for policy reviews and capacity-building programmes aimed at improving workers’ access to justice.

The two commissions will coordinate with Malaysia’s Social Security Organisation (SOCSO) to improve Nepali workers’ access to social security schemes.

The agreement was first signed in 2019 to institutionalise cooperation between the two commissions in protecting the rights of migrant workers and citizens in the two countries. It provides for information sharing, cooperation in handling complaints, and joint monitoring and investigations.

The agreement had been renewed twice previously before expiring in 2024.

Alongside the signing, a delegation from NHRC met officials at the Nepali Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, the Non-Resident Nepali Association Malaysia and other stakeholders to gather information on the conditions faced by Nepali workers.

SUHAKAM has also arranged meetings between the Nepali commission and the Malaysian Prisons Department and the Social Security Organisation.

The two commissions have urged Nepali workers in Malaysia to file complaints with SUHAKAM about human rights violations they have experienced or witnessed. SUHAKAM said complaints would be handled confidentially and in accordance with legal procedures.

According to SUHAKAM, about 400,000 Nepali workers are currently employed in Malaysia. Between 2021 and August 2026, the commission registered 46 complaints involving Nepali workers.

The complaints include employers withholding workers’ passports, forcing them to work for as many as 30 consecutive days without leave, making them work up to 12 hours a day, withholding or delaying wages, requiring overtime without payment and forcing workers to work in unsafe conditions.