Malaysia is one of Asia's biggest employers of foreign labour. But recently, cases of deaths, abuse and forced labour have come to light. What is going on? Who is protecting these migrant workers?
Home Affairs Minister Azmi Khalid said that employers who were found to be
cruel would be banned from hiring new foreign workers, in a bid to curb abuses
and even deaths among labourers.
<p>"Employers have responsibilities towards their workers, including foreign
workers. Being cruel and abusive is unacceptable," he said.</p>
<p>Last year, 23 cases of mistreatment of foreign workers were recorded by the
immigration department while another 14 cases have been reported so far this
year.</p>
<p>Azmi was reacting to the case of an Indian national who reportedly died of
yellow fever after being locked up along with some 400 other Indian workers
in a hostel for two weeks by an employer in southern Johor state.</p>
<p>Separately, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mohamed Nazri said
some 90,000 refugees in the country may be absorbed into the workforce to ease
the labour crunch caused by a mass expulsion earlier this year.</p>
<p>"Since we have refugees in the country and most of them are unemployed,
why not use them to resolve the labour shortage?" he was quoted as saying.</p>
<p>"All we need to do is provide them with some kind of identification and
get them to fill the jobs," he said adding that such employment would be
temporary.</p>
<p><b>Amnesty exercise</b></p>
<p>His announcement came after the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) last week urged the government to allow refugees living in Malaysia
to work legally.</p>
<p>The country is one of Asia’s largest importers of labour. Foreign workers,
legal and illegal, number around 2.6 million of its workforce of 10.5 million.</p>
<p>The repatriation of about 400,000 illegal immigrants, mainly low-wage Indonesian
workers, during a four-month amnesty that ended in March left a huge gap in
the agricultural, construction, manufacturing and services sectors.</p>
<p>The labour crunch has prompted the government to seek mass recruitment of workers
from Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Myanmar and Vietnam. – AFP
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