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 Datuk Azmi Khalid said this was conveyed to him by President
Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz during meetings in Islamabad
over the weekend.
<p>He said he was confident the recruitment exercise would go smoothly as Pakistani
authorities had an efficient security vetting system. </p>
<p>"In fact, their identity card and passport issuing systems are better
than ours," he told a press conference at his office here yesterday. </p>
<p>He said Pakistan’s identification system requires the fingerprinting of all
10 fingers, and the family history of each person dates back generations. </p>
<p>Malaysia has agreed to recruit 100,000 workers from Pakistan, which has been
accepted as a source country for foreign labour. </p>
<p>To date, about 1,000 applications from local employers have been approved.
</p>
<p>Azmi said local companies should not have any reservations about hiring Pakistanis,
whom he said seldom created problems overseas. </p>
<p>He said Pakistan had also agreed to allow his ministry’s officials access to
the database of its workers sent here, adding that this would be done via the
Pakistani High Commission here. </p>
<p>He urged companies interested in employing Pakistanis to apply now. </p>
<p>However, only requests for male workers would be entertained. </p>
<p>The ministry would also make available the list of registered Pakistani employment
agents for recruitment purposes, he added.
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