Report: HR Ministry denies relaxing policies caused oversupply of foreign labour, says foreign agents to blame
KUALA LUMPUR, June 15 — The Human Resources Ministry today said the current oversupply of foreign workers is caused by the labour supply agencies that sent them, and not its relaxation of the conditions for importing labour into Malaysia amid increasing public scrutiny into human trafficking.
The ministry added that its investigations had shown that the problem was caused by rogue agents in the country where the workers are recruited and named Bangladesh among them, news portal Malaysiakini reported today.
“The ministry disagrees with allegations that there is a glut in foreign labour due to the relaxation.
“Quotas were given according to the needs of the industry which applied for it.
“The number of quotas approved is based on the employers' eligibility at the time of application,” the news portal quoted the ministry as saying in reply to its questions about the trafficking of foreigners answering recruitment ads to work in Malaysia that forced them into conditions that have been likened to modern-day slave trading.
Malaysiakini previously reported that human traffickers traded migrant workers in Malaysia by charging the local employers for their labour and then taking multiple commissions of their hourly wages.
The Human Resources Ministry also said it continues to monitor the situation and denied claims that there were “zero checks” on procedures.
It told the news portal that employers seeking to fill quotas were still required to submit documents to support requests, which were then checked by the ministry to ensure genuine demand.
It reportedly explained that follow-up checks were also conducted by the Labour Department on companies that were granted quotas six months after approvals.
The ministry claimed that the rogue agencies also recruited and sent workers, and disregarded the volume of demand from employers and without informing the latter of the additional workers that will come to Malaysia.
“The Human Resources Ministry proposes that the Bangladeshi recruitment agencies involved be suspended from sending workers to Malaysia,” it was quoted as saying.
According to Malaysiakini, the ministry did not address questions on methods used by the workers to enter Malaysia and if the hiring agents successfully secured calling visas in spite of failing to secure jobs for the workers here.
The news portal also reported that the Human Resources Ministry did not comment on the Bangladesh High Commission’s call for it to verify approved quotas following the arrival of hundreds of Bangladeshi workers who were then left stranded without jobs.
The news portal said the ministry explained that some 455,343 foreign worker quotas were approved when conditions were relaxed, allowing it to match demand for around 500,000 workers.
The figure of a million workers which Human Resources Minister V. Sivakumar quoted referred to approvals for quotas from the time the current unity government took over in November 2022 after the 15th general elections.
