KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 22 — The Human Resources Ministry (MOHR) and the Home Ministry will increase the enforcement activities and take strict actions against employers who fail to comply with labour and immigration laws along with any fraudulent activities conducted by employers during the relaxation programme on hiring migrant workers.
Human Resource Minister V. Sivakumar said employers and private employment agencies who breached laws and misused policies and directives by the government in regards to foreign workers applications and recruitments would be blacklisted.
"The above issues are being seriously looked into by the government and several steps are taken to address the problems.
“We also will assist foreign workers who suffered from employers who misused the relaxation programme through the Employers Exchange Programme and the new employer will be screened by the Department of Labour and Department of Immigration before the workers are handed to them,” he said in a statement today.
Sivakumar was responding to a media report on Thursday that Malaysia is facing a huge excess of foreign workers due to systemic forced labour.
Sivakumar said the government had reviewed the relaxation programme, which had been stopped since March 18, and aware that some employers had misused the flexibility given, resulting in the approved quota exceeding the actual needs of the employers.
"This has undeniably caused many foreign workers to face unpleasant situations of not being paid, not being given jobs and not provided with conducive accommodation according to the laws of the country.
“The government has decided that there will be no more approval for new quotas, and it will only be managing the entry of workers based on the approved quotas, to ensure that the number of foreign workers in Malaysia will not exceed 2.4 million by 2025,” he said.
The Human Resources Ministry would like to clarify that the management of foreign workers in Malaysia is subject to the principle of prioritising local workers and the demand from employers depending on their actual needs based on criteria determined by the government according to sectors, he added.
— Bernama
