Malaysia suspend foreign worker intake: Accord with Bd uncertain

News Desk

Malaysia suspends worker recruitment day after G2G deal Malaysia government has decided to ‘suspend’ the recruitment of all foreign workers to Malaysia, including those from Bangladesh, reports the Malaysian Star online.“We urge all employers to recruit local workers,” said deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, also the home minister, after
meeting Army personnel at Kem Muara Tuang on Friday.
The announcement came hours after Malaysian human resources minister Datuk Seri Richard Riot signed a Memorandum of Understanding with
Bangladesh to recruit 1.5 million workers in next three years.
The deputy prime minister said the suspension would be in place while the government reviewed the two-tier levy programme for foreign
workers, according to the Star online.
Deputy prime minister (DPM) was speaking in Kuching, Sarawak, saying that Ahmad Zahid also said the existing illegal workers in Malaysia
would be detained and deported.
The DPM told the Malaysian Insider.com that decision of suspension came after a thorough consideration while the government would also
review recent changes to the levy system on foreign workers.
Malaysian human resources minister Richard Riot on Friday clarified his ministry’s stance over the issue saying, “We have just inked the
memorandum of understanding (MoU) yesterday with our counterpart in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It does not entail any specific number (of
Bangladeshi workers to be deployed to Malaysia) just like any other MoU we have signed with other source countries.”
Earlier, Malaysian human resources minister Datuk Seri Richard Riot said the number actually referred to the number of Bangladeshis
registered with the ministry in Bangladesh to work in 139 countries worldwide.
“There’re a total of 1.5 million Bangladeshis registered for future employment in foreign countries, but that’s not the number of workers
coming to Malaysia,” says Riot.
“The perception that 1.5 millioný workers will be brought in from Bangladesh to work in Malaysia is not true,” Malaysian media outlet
The Star Online quoted the human resources minister as saying.
As of December last year, there are 2,135,035 documented foreign workers in Malaysia, of which 282,287 are from Bangladesh.
Riot also said the Memorandum of Understanding signed in Dhaka on Thursday was similar to what the government had previously signed with
Indonesia, India, Thailand, Cambodia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.
Bangladesh’s Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Nurul Islam BSc signed the MoU with Malaysia under the Government to
government (G2G) system on Thursday in Dhaka for sending 1.5 million workers in various sectors.