High recruitment fees make greedy agents bring in workers, says group

 

The National Association of Private Employment Agencies Malaysia said a company may only need 10 foreign workers, but the agent at the recruitment firm will apply for 100, abandoning the rest. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA: A recruitment fee of up to RM25,000 is the main reason agents are applying to bring in more foreign workers than needed.

National Association of Private Employment Agencies Malaysia (Papsma) secretary-general Sukumaran Nair said many Bangladeshis were willing to pay high recruitment fees because they see Malaysia as a “ticket” to a more comfortable life.

“These companies which serve as intermediaries are bloodsuckers. Each worker pays RM20,000 to RM25,000 in recruitment fees. Imagine the kind of profit these companies are making,” he told FMT.

“That is why agents from Bangladesh will try to bring in as many workers as they can from there.”

Sukumaran told FMT that there were situations where a company might only need 10 foreign workers, but the agent at the recruitment firm will apply for 100.

“He (the agent) sends 10 (workers) to the company and the rest are left to fend for themselves,” he said.

“The government also doesn’t have the time to check the actual needs of these companies. The important thing is that they (the agencies) have obtained approval (to bring in foreign workers).

“But because they don’t have jobs, they look for work elsewhere.”

Sukumaran said the same fate might have befallen the 171 Bangladeshis seen marching together in Pengerang, Johor, in a video that went viral.

Kota Tinggi police chief Hussin Zamora said the Bangladeshis were marching towards the Bayu Damai police station 10km away from their hostel to file a report because they claimed that their agents had failed to provide them with jobs as promised.

The workers were detained on Dec 20 by the armed forces and handed over later to the police for action.

They were detained for overstaying under Section 15(1)(c) of the Immigration Act 1959/63. All were sent to the Setia Tropika immigration department in Johor Bahru for further investigation.

Human resources minister Steven Sim told FMT that his ministry would summon the employers mentioned in the foreigners’ documents and the agents involved to assist them in the investigation later this week.

He also revealed plans to meet home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail to discuss policy improvements related to migrant workers.

Sukumaran said nearly 1,000 companies from Bangladesh handled the process of bringing in workers to Malaysia.

However, Malaysia only recognises 100 companies currently registered under the Integrated Foreign Workers Management (ePPAx) system.

Sukumaran said the influx of foreign workers also occurred when approvals for a particular sector do not match the number of vacancies.

While there is currently a freeze on applications for migrant workers, in January, Putrajaya announced that 500,000 foreign workers would be allowed to enter the country in stages to work in five critical sectors — manufacturing, construction, agriculture, farming and services (restaurants).

“The agents make money if there is any approval to bring in workers. But in so many cases now, the government grants approval without really knowing whether there are vacancies to be filled,” said Sukumaran. - FMT