PUTRAJAYA needs to provide better clarity on its policy in allowing the intake of foreign workers into the country for all permitted sectors, the Malaysian Employers Federation said today. 

It said that expecting employers to bear all costs in bringing in the workers will increase the cost of doing business and derail the country’s recovery effort. 

“We are concerned by the requirement that employers would be required to bear all costs to bring in the foreign workers into Malaysia,” MEF president Syed Hussain Syed Husman J.P. said in a statement. 

“There has to be more clarity on this matter as it would be unreasonable to require payment regardless of the circumstances that may occur during the recruitment process.” 

Syed Hussain brought up scenarios such as loss of documents prior to departure and costs incurred to prepare documents for interviews, and questioned if employers were responsible for such cost as well. 

“We are of the view that it is important to have a clear policy to prevent any misunderstanding and dispute between the employer, worker and the government.” 

He added that the migrant workers’ country of origin should take charge of the recruitment process for their citizens instead of allowing third party recruitment agencies to charge exorbitant fees. 

Malaysia is gearing up to welcome 32,000 foreign workers, including from Indonesia, to ease the labour shortage in the plantation sector under a special grant programme. 

Speaking on the recalibration programme for illegal foreign workers, Syed Hussain said the number of verified foreign workers was still low as illegal migrant workers may not have the necessary documents for verification.

He asked that the Immigration Department consider easing the process to allow for more to be verified. 

Home Ministry data showed that of the 212,926 illegal foreign workers who registered to be regularised under the recalibration programme, only 34,318 passed, 20,889 failed, and 157,719 had not attended the verification process at the immigration office, he said. 

“If they (the illegal foreign workers) cannot be legalised then they could be sent home. In this way, the government would be able to address the problems associated with illegal foreign workers in a more effective way.”

Yesterday, Home Minister Hamzah Zainuddin said employers have until December 31 to enrol in the programme.

He said the ministry along with the Human Resources Ministry would embark on a large-scale enforcement operations to nab undocumented migrants on January 1. – October 27, 2021.