Less than 1pct approvals issued for migrant workers since Feb 15

 

The government has approved less than one percent of 475,678 applications received from employers looking to hire migrant workers since the submission process was opened on Feb 15.

Human Resource Minister M Saravanan (above) said 2,605 approvals or 0.55 percent of total applications have so far been issued to hire migrant workers in the manufacturing and plantation sectors.

He said the total applications comprised manufacturing (290, 248), services (77,000), plantation (53,854), construction (43,519), farming (11,037), as well as mining and quarry (20).

"There were also applications unable to be processed due to incomplete documents, no copy of original documents, wrong information, exceeded quota and others.

"I would like to remind all employers who applied for migrant workers to submit their applications online, and any manual application will not be accepted.

"Besides that, all employers must ensure the online applications submitted are complete to avoid rejection or failure to process," he said in a statement.

More delays expected

When contacted, the National Association of Malaysian Employment Agencies (Papsma) secretary-general N Sukumaran said employers who obtained approvals for their applications can proceed to the respective foreign missions of the source countries.

However, he said even with the approvals, more delays are still expected, including on entry of Bangladeshi workers as its high commission here has yet to open its attestation process.

"I have checked with the Bangladesh High Commission and they have yet to open up for attestation," said Sukumaran in reference to the process of verifying the hiring approvals and finding an agent in Bangladesh, before workers are allowed to be sent to Malaysia.

"Without the attestation, no Bangladeshi worker can come into the country even with the approvals.

"We previously heard from the minister (Saravanan) that all applications so far are for workers from Bangladesh but how can employers bring them in without attestation?" he asked.

Specifically for recruitments from Bangladesh, Sukumaran claimed there were also unresolved issues surrounding Malaysia's selection of health facilities approved to carry out pre-departure screenings on workers.

"The biggest fraud is that people who are owning recruitment agencies in Bangladesh also own hospitals and clinics there.

"Those people are then given opportunities to bring in (to Malaysia) certified workers," he claimed.

"Once the workers arrive we will do another Fomema on them and what happens if they don't pass? Who will cover the costs?" said Sukumaran in reference to the mandatory health screening for migrant workers.

Bangladesh Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Imran Ahmed, who was in Kuala Lumpur last month, previously told Malaysiakini that bilateral discussions after the Malaysia-Bangladesh MOU signing have been at a standstill since January.

As such, there has been no further progress on discussions to resolve objections by Bangladesh over the number of recruitment agencies permitted to send their workers here.

Aside from Bangladesh, Malaysia's recent signing of the MOU with Indonesia on recruitment and protection of domestic workers is also expected to reopen migration channels for recruitment across all permitted sectors.

Indonesia had previously imposed the domestic workers MOU signing as a condition for its government to also allow recruitment in Malaysian plantations and other sectors facing acute labour shortage since the Covid-19 pandemic two years ago. - Mkini