The government will open up recruitment of migrant workers from 15 countries to be employed in three main economic sectors – construction, manufacturing and service.
Home Minister Hamzah Zainudin made the announcement yesterday following Indonesia’s decision to impose a temporary freeze on its workers entering Malaysia over alleged breach of terms in the recently signed domestic worker memorandum of understanding between the two countries.
Hamzah was speaking at a joint press conference with Human Resources Minister M Saravanan at the Bukit Aman police headquarters after a joint committee meeting on migrant management.
According to the Immigration Department website, there are 12 migrant worker source countries whose citizens can be employed in all sectors - Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Philippines (men only), Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakstan.
The website explained that Indian nationals can be employed in the service, agriculture, plantation and only in one construction sub-sector which is high tension cable.
It stated that Indonesian nationals can be employed in all sectors with the exception of men working in manufacturing.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh nationals are limited to working in the plantation sector, on a government-to-government basis.
The committee also approved a proposal by the Construction Labour Exchange Centre Bhd (CLAB) to fully manage the entry of foreign workers into its sector for the recruitment of more than 100 workers.
This will be done in accordance with the Construction Industry Development Board Act.
This decision was to address the situation where work on job sites has been completed but workers still have remaining time on their temporary employment visa.
The minister said CLAB would be able to monitor these situations and shift them to other work sites.
Hamzah also announced that his ministry will handle applications for foreign workers to carry out infrastructure and construction works within restricted and prohibited areas, with short-term permits.
In addition, low-skilled migrant workers will be allowed to be recruited into the subsectors of land warehousing and bird’s nest harvesting under the purview of the Transport Ministry and the Agriculture and Food Industries Ministry, respectively.
Local workforce not affected
Hamzah said the ministries will play a regulatory role in the recruitment of migrant workers to ensure that there was no over-dependence on foreign labour and that this move does not affect employment opportunities for locals.
“We want to allow the bird’s nest industry room to grow and generate better income for the country.
“At the moment there are about 3,000 workers in this industry of which 50 percent are migrant workers, so we want to give them an opportunity to grow,” he added.
The government will also lift the freeze on migrant employment in sub-sectors of laundry and scrap metal with applications now open.
Yesterday, Saravanan said that the Human Resources Ministry representatives was meeting with the Indonesian ambassador to discuss solutions to an administrative dispute over migrant workers which he was confident could be resolved with a “win-win situation”. - Mkini
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