A recruiting agency for foreign workers in Malaysia has said that 1.5 million Bangladeshi workers will replace foreign workers in the coming years.
Published : 24 Feb 2016, 01:36 AM
At a press conference in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday, the Bumiputera Entrepreneurs Club of Foreign Worker Suppliers and Management (D’Kelab) said that new recruits from Bangladesh will not increase the number of total foreign workers.
The new recruits will replace workers whose contracts end soon, said the organisation.
Bangladeshi workers currently in Malaysia may have to leave the country when their work permits expire, it added.
Quoting D’Kelab’s Secretary-General Ishak Kamaruddin, a report of themalaymailonline.com read that the last recruitment of Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia was during 2007 and 2008, when they were given permission to work there for ten years.
Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said on Feb 19 that the country will immediately halt hiring foreign workers from any source countries, including Bangladesh, until it ascertains its actual manpower needs.
The decision came barely a day after Malaysia signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Bangladesh for hiring 1.5 million workers over the next five years.
Malaysia's Human Resources Minister Richard Riot Jaem on Feb 19 clarified that the suspension of hiring will not affect the validity of the agreement to hire Bangladeshi workers.
D’Kelab’s Secretary-General Kamaruddin said, “The figure of 1.5 million Bangladeshi workers was not plucked out of thin air.”
In 2011, Malaysia initiated a ‘6P programme’ for legitimising undocumented foreign workers, but the programme only allowed them to work for four years starting 2012, he said.
“What was estimated by the deputy prime minister is reasonable. The figure is simply a replacement of outgoing foreign workers. It is not an addition to the total number of foreign workers here,” Kamaruddin added.
He also said that there is a growing need for foreign recruits in several sectors of Malaysia including the “3D” industries.
According to a statement of the Malaysian Human Resource Ministry, the country has 2,135,035 documented foreign workers and an estimated 1.7 million illegal workers, as was determined in December 2015.