No freeze in intake of foreign workers, says ministry

The government says it wants to check the practice of forced labour.

KUALA LUMPUR: The human resources ministry has clarified that there is no freeze in the recruitment of foreign workers although many applications to bring in workers have been rejected for non-compliance with the law.

The ministry said it was committed to ensuring that employers continue to abide by the country’s labour laws and guidelines to check the practice of forced labour.

In the past two years, 4,434 employers from the restaurant sub-sector had applied to hire foreign workers via the ePPAx (Integrated Foreign Workers Management System) of the Manpower Department in the peninsula, and of this number, only 1,407 applications involving 8,552 workers were supported, it said.

“As at April 2019, 796 applications to hire foreign workers were received. Of this number, 216 applications involving 1,840 foreign workers were supported and 580 applications were rejected.

“Of this number, 517 applications were rejected because the employers failed to adhere to labour laws, and the remaining 63 were because the employers were not eligible to hire foreign workers,” the ministry added in a statement. - FMT