The Hindu : National : Malaysian Minister: stop intake of foreign workers for now

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 31, 2007
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Malaysian Minister: stop intake of foreign workers for now

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian government on Sunday said that the intake of foreign workers should be temporarily stopped until detailed policies on the hiring were introduced.

“At the moment, there were some 2.6 million foreign workers in Malaysia. The number is sufficient, there should be a halt to the intake of foreign workers,” Malaysia’s Human Resource Deputy Minister Abdul Rahman Bakar said.

He said job opportunities available with the opening up of development areas under the Northern Corridor Economic Region, were for locals and not for foreign workers. “We don’t want employers or employment agencies to think that this is their chance to reap profits by bringing in more foreign workers,” he said after opening the National Union of Plantation Workers’ delegates’ conference in Langkawi.

Foreign workers, mostly from India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka were employed in construction industry, restaurants, plantations and as house-helps and security guards here. The country’s 27 million people mostly shun menial jobs, which are taken up by the foreign workers.

He said that over 2,00,000 plantation workers in the country now receive minimum monthly wages of 325 Ringgit to 350 Ringgit exclusive of allowances. He noted that this would assure them of monthly income even during floods, which occurred each year and affected plantations in flood-prone states. — PTI

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