MP dares gov't to disclose MOU signed with Bangladesh

Klang MP Charles Santiago today challenged the government to disclose details of the memorandum of understanding (MOU), which it had signed with Bangladesh in relation to the 1.5 million workers controversy.

Santiago told Malaysiakini this was because there had been a "clear contradiction" between the statements made by Malaysian ministers on the matter and their counterparts in Bangladesh.

“There is definitely a clear contradiction. This is a complicated issue and you have different ministers saying different things.

“It was announced here that the government will freeze the intake of all foreign workers, but the spokespersons in Bangladesh are saying it (the announcement) will have no impact on the MOU,” he pointed out.

Putrajaya has been criticised over its flip-flop on the issue after Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had on Friday announced that the intake of all foreign labour will be put on hold with immediate effect, a day after Putrajaya had signed the MOU with Bangladesh.

In response, Bangladeshi Expatriate Ministry acting secretary Begum Shamsunnahar had yesterday reportedly described the government’s announcement as an “eyewash”, and insisted that its citizens will continue their plans to work in Malaysia following the agreement.

Human Resource minister Richard Riot had in response to Begum similarly said that the freeze will not affect the validity of the MoU signed.

Riot, however, had earlier claimed that the 1.5 million figure was “not correct” as it supposedly represents the total number of workers registered with the government of Bangladesh through the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment, to be sent to 139 countries.

Santiago, meanwhile, also questioned the initial deal which was signed by Riot and his Bangladeshi counterpart Nurul Islam.

“A full investigation must be conducted on this entire process (of foreign workers recruitment). It has been previously reported that a company linked to the brother of the Deputy Prime Minister (Ahmad Zahid Hamidi) was involved in the process.

“Since permits for foreign workers fall under purview of the Home Ministry and Ahmad Zahid is home minister, could this be a reason why he was not the one who signed the deal?” he pondered.

‘Conduct impact study’

At the same time, Santiago also said the government should have conducted a full Labour Impact Assessment study to determine the actual market demand for foreign labour before signing the MoU with Bangladesh.

This, he said, was aside from dealing with the bigger problem of undocumented migrants already in Malaysia.

“After the freeze was announced, there was an immediate crackdown on undocumented migrants around the country.

“This shows that there are a large number of foreign workers already here and the government should first look into registering them for legal employment, before bringing in more,” he said, adding that this would reduce the costs incurred to detain and deport them.

In a statement yesterday, Immigration Department director-general Sakib Kusmi said 971 undocumented migrants were nabbed for various offences in a 12-hour operation nationwide, from a total 2,182 foreign nationals screened.

It was also reported that 8,058 immigrants have been deported from Jan 1 to Feb 18, following 1,452 raids conducted and 25,549 foreigners screened.

'Bizarre to blame employers'

Without the government having determined the real market demand for labour, Santiago also described Deputy Home Minister Nur Jazlan Mohamad’s attempts at shifting the blame to employers as “bizarre”.

"The Home Affairs Ministry gives out the permits for foreign workers. Enforcement agencies are also within its purview, so shifting the blame to employers is irresponsible.

"It is a bizarre move to stay that employers are to blame for the high number of foreign workers here," he contended.

The Malaysian Insider news portal had today quoted Nur Jazlan as saying that employers, instead of the government, were the ones who had “flip-flopped” on their demands for “cheap foreign labour”.

He also reportedly claimed that employers must shoulder the blame for cases where their workers had ‘run away’ and effectively rendering their status as “illegals” despite previously having a legal work permit. -Mkini