Kuala Lumpur’s suspension of foreign worker intakes does not invalidate the memorandum of understanding that Malaysia signed with Bangladesh, Malaysian online newspaper Malay Mail Online quoted the Malaysian human resources ministry as saying.
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Worker groups such as the Malaysian Trade Unions Congress (MTUC) had said locals should be given priority for jobs.
Malaysia’s workforce consists of 15.3 million people, including 2.1 million foreign workers.
Reports of the planned 1.5 million-strong Bangladeshi labourer intake had sparked intolerant responses from some Malaysians, including some local NGOs that claimed the entry of such foreign workers would lead to rape, terrorism and the spread of diseases.
In response to Hamidi’s announcement, Penang Chinese Chamber of Commerce President Choot Ewe Seng said the hardest hit would be the construction, manufacturing and service industries, which had become too dependent on foreign workers.
Riot said it was estimated that for every 10 legal foreign workers there would be eight undocumented foreign workers and, this meant, there were about 1.7 million undocumented foreign workers in the country.
“Foreign workers without valid documents or have overstayed in the country will be arrested and sent back to their country of origin”, he said at a casual meeting with soldiers at the Muara Tuang Camp here.
On Thursday, Riot and Bangladesh Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Nurul Islam signed the memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the hiring of Bangladeshi workers.
He said the figure instead consisted of Bangladeshis who had registered to work overseas and they would not necessarily come to Malaysia. “FMM hopes that the government has given due consideration to these cases in coming to its decision to freeze recruitment”, it said.
The Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers has urged the government to review the decision.
Malaysia should look at labor market demands more closely when determining foreign worker inflows as its current approval system doesn’t sufficiently reflect the needs of industries, the World Bank said in December.
The government on Friday unexpectedly froze, as a “temporary” measure, all new migrant labour intake after getting public flak for pushing to bring in Bangladesh workers at a time when the economy is slowing down.
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The workers from the South Asian country would be brought into Malaysia only if needed.
