A GOVERNMENT panel’s proposal for companies to fund deportation costs of undocumented migrants to make fresh hiring is not practical and is open to abuse and corruption, said industry stakeholders.

While the Malaysian Employers’ Federation said such a trade-off could be costly for the companies, an activist group said the companies could take advantage of the system to carry on with forced labour practices.

They were commenting on the Home Ministry’s proposal to lift the freeze on new recruitments of foreign workers if companies are willing to foot the deportation cost of undocumented migrant workers.

Home Minister Hamzah Zainuddin said recently that employers who do so could be allowed to hire a new foreign worker.

“You send back one, we let you hire one,” he told reporters on the proposal, which is aimed at reducing the cost of detention. However, the proposal will be subject to the cabinet’s approval.

MEF executive director Shamsuddin Bardan said legalising undocumented migrant workers currently in the country would be a better option than deporting detained workers in exchange for a new recruit.

He told The Malaysian Insight that from the perspective of cost, it would make more sense to legalise an existing undocumented migrant worker instead of recruiting a new one from their home country.

“Allow employers to employ the undocumented foreign workers who already here.

“This should be considered first before we go on the basis of trade off with the deportation of one (undocumented) worker for one new worker,” he said.

He suggests two categories of undocumented foreign workers whom the government can consider legalising – those previously employed legally but whose work permits have expired and those who entered through social visit passes but overstayed.

Meanwhile, executive director of workers’ rights group North South Initiative Adrian Pereira said the proposal could lead to a human resources disaster if there are no proper checks and balances.

“Knowing Malaysian employers and their poor reputation and without basic check and balance screenings from regulators, this is bound to turn into a human resource disaster,” the activist said.

“I foresee companies using this opportunity to exploit their quotas by merely sponsoring what is already established to be the result of years of corruption by enforcement officers.”

He said the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee report shows that they are people abusing the quotas to get more workers.

“These workers are prone to forced labour and modern-day slavery.”

Big companies, labour agents and traffickers would use this opportunity to bring in more workers than allowed under their quotas, he said.

“Workers will end up in very precarious situations,” he added.

PAC revealed last month that there were more special applications approved for the admission of foreign workers into the country than regular applications.

Pereira also said while employers are desperate for foreign workers, agents, unscrupulous employers and corrupt officials may use this as an opportunity to extort money from undocumented migrants who want to continue working here.

According to Pereira’s theory, one undocumented migrant worker can fulfil the productivity of three to five locals.

“Any day the industries can pay any fee for migrants or PATI and still recuperate losses and still make huge profits,” he noted.

“It also makes the assumption that Malaysians can’t fill the job vacancies. Where is the labour market analysis for this?”

Shamsuddin said although the government has frozen the hiring for foreign workers to prioritise jobs for Malaysians, the uptake by locals in certain sectors has been poor. – December 7, 2020.