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?
Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, who heads a cabinet committee on the
problem, told a news conference the move was necessary because too few of the
hundreds of thousands of expelled Indonesian workers had taken up an offer to
return legally.
Najib said the government had approved permits for 169,000 Indonesians but
only 11,000 had returned under a scheme designed to transform illegal immigrants
into legal workers once they were processed in their own country.
"We hope the government of Indonesia will send the workers as soon as
possible to meet our economic needs," Najib said.
"We have 11 one-stop centres in Indonesia where the Indonesian workers
can obtain their permits."
Asked what was causing the delay, Najib said: "It is very much in the
Indonesian court." He did not elaborate.
"Because of the serious need for foreign workers the cabinet committee
has agreed to also take workers from Pakistan, India, Myanmar (Burma), Nepal
and Vietnam. Immediate steps will be taken to bring them to Malaysia because
the demand is strong."
Not a political move
Najib said the move to bring in workers from other countries was "not
political. We are very practical. We need the workers. We are giving every avenue
to Indonesian workers.
"To demonstrate our strong ties with Indonesia we will scrap the induction
course because Indonesian workers understand our local language and culture,
and training can be done when they are in Malaysia."
Najib said 382,000 illegal immigrants had left the country under a four-month
amnesty which ended on March 1.
Their departure has caused a major labour shortage in Malaysia. Some 200,000
workers are reportedly needed in the manufacturing sector, 150,000 in construction,
50,000 in plantations and 20,000 in the services sector.
Najib said that at present there are 1.5 million legal foreign workers in Malaysia.
One million of them are Indonesians. – AFP
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