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?
KUCHING, Feb 2 (Bernama) — Deputy Home Minister Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar wants plantation sector employers hiring foreign workers to provide accomodation for them in the plantation areas.
He said employers were not allowed to place their foreign workers in rented houses in urban areas so as to prevent all kinds of social problems.
“Employers and enforcement agencies such as the police and Immigration Department must also constantly monitor their foreign workers’ movement,” he told a media conference here today on the Sarawak government’s plan to bring in 12,000 workers from Bangladesh to work in the state’s plantation sector.
He said Immigration Department’s record showed 139,761 foreign workers are hired in Sarawak at present.
According to the Sarawak Labour Ordinance, every foreign worker is given only a five-year period to work in the state, which can be renewed for another five years if required.
However Wan Junaidi, who said priority in job oppportunities would be given to Sarawakians in the sector, wanted various quarters to understand the rationale behind the state government’s agreement to being in foreign workers to work there.
“The existing guidelines require that companies hiring foreign workers must have a minimum 30 percent local workers and the state government intends to increase the ratio to 50 per cent or higher,” he said.
Based on the experience in the peninsular, he said most locals were not interested to work in the plantation and construction sectors which was considered as dirty and dangerous.
Hence the state government had to hire foreign workers to fill in the vacancies in the sector as the state economy was important to develop the state in all economic aspects, he said.
He said the governments of Malaysia and Bangladesh had signed an agreement to bring in 12,000 workers from Bangladesh to Sarawak but the process would take a while to implement.
Source: Bernama
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