Lauding foreign workers’ contribution, Dr Noor Hisham urges Malaysians against stigmatising them for Covid-19 cases

KUALA LUMPUR, June 1 — Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah today called on Malaysians to not stigmatise foreign workers following a recent spike in Covid-19 cases, as the community has contributed towards the growth of the country.

The health director-general said the outbreak in several Immigration Department detention centres as well as foreign workers in various communities is a new challenge that the country must address together.

“However, the foreigners must not be sidelined and must not be stigmatised by Malaysians. In fact, we must help them, to help reduce the Covid-19 infection in our country,” he said.

“Indeed, Malaysians have limited interactions with foreigners every year, but their presence, especially foreign workers, has helped to strengthen the economy of our country. Rightfully, we need to identify and find solutions to address the issue of Covid-19 among them,” he added.

Dr Noor Hisham also said today that health authorities will be shifting its focus to new Covid-19 cases among foreign workers.

He said employers with foreign workers in the country’s Covid-19 “red zones” must get them tested, while those in “yellow” and “green zones” are urged to do as well.

Currently, the red zones are in Bukit Jalil and city centre in Kuala Lumpur, Hulu Langat and Sepang in Selangor, and Rembau in Negri Sembilan.

This comes as Dr Noor Hisham said earlier that the country is following the modelled trend closely, if import cases and those in the immigration deports are not included in the data.

He also congratulated Malaysians on following the standard operating procedures that contributed towards the trend, and explained that the new focus of health authorities is now on cases involving foreign workers.

On Saturday, Senior Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said that authorities found 384 undocumented migrants with Covid-19 at the immigration depots in Bukit Jalil, Semenyih and KLIA after testing 4,807 detainees.

He told his daily security press conference that another 37 individuals were still waiting for their results while those found positive had been sent to the Malaysia Agro Exposition Park Serdang (MAEPS), for quarantine and treatment.

Many foreign workers here have been constantly subjected to degrading treatment by both employers and the general public who often view them as a menace, with many expressing fear that their job prospects would be hampered by the influx of migrants.

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