Kathmandu, Sept. 22 -- 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 circumstan...