Malaysia suspends foreign workers’ hiring

The MoU is expected to bring a new system, styled as “G2G (government-to-government) Plus”, which was approved by the Bangladeshi cabinet on February 8 to pave the way to send 1.5 million workers to Malaysia in the next three years.

Worker groups such as the Malaysian Trade Unions Congress (MTUC) had said locals should be given priority for jobs.

Ahmad Zahid said enforcement against illegal foreign workers would be stepped up and implemented on a large scale in the country.

Past media reports have often highlighted that the population of foreign workers in Malaysia has been growing rapidly over the past few years – some even predict if the influx of Bangladeshi workers into Malaysia is not controlled, they will outnumber the Indian population in the country as the third biggest race in a not-too-distant future.

The federation also commented on the review of the two-tier levy programme, and said employer associations had met the Home Ministry on Feb 16.

Malaysian Human Resource Minister Datuk Seri Richard Riot issued a statement to clarify his ministry’s stance on the agreement on Saturday, The Star Online says.

“The perception that 1.5 million workers will be brought in from Bangladesh to Malaysia to work is not true”.

On Thursday, Riot and Bangladesh Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Nurul Islam signed the memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the hiring of Bangladeshi workers.

The Malaysian Government had entered into MoUs with seven other source countries, namely Indonesia, Thailand, India, Cambodia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Vietnam, he said.

He said that there was no fixed timeline for the recruitment freeze. Another 1.7 million foreigners are estimated to be working illegally in the country.

Ibrahim said the high number of foreign workers coming in could pose a threat to Malaysia’s sovereignty and national interest.

With the total workforce in the country now at 15.3 million, 15 per cent of that would total 2.3 million foreign workers, he said. “The government will postpone the plan until we are satisfied and identify the exact need of the various industries in the country”, said Zahid, according to the New Straits Times.

Currently, he said, there were 282,287 legal Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia and, of the total, 109,743 were in the construction sector; 104,311, manufacturing; 32,609, services; 21,253, plantation and 14,371, agriculture.

Up to 25 per cent of the Malaysian workforce consists of foreign blue-collar workers.