By IANS
Kuala Lumpur : Malaysia is planning a drastic reduction in the number of foreign workers in the country, with at least 200,000 likely to be sent home by next year.
Home affairs ministry secretary-general Raja Azahar Raja Abdul Manap said there were now some 2.02 million foreign workers in Malaysia, with approvals for 200,000 fresh arrivals this year.
The target is to cut the number down to 1.8 million by next year and 1.5 million by 2015.
The objective, The Star newspaper said Sunday, was to reduce the country’s dependency on foreign labour and to prioritise jobs for locals.
All unskilled foreign workers will not have their work permits extended if they have been in the country for five years or more and skilled workers have up to a maximum of 10 years.
Reports earlier this month about the possible measures caused a flutter in India and other countries, including Thailand, the Philippines and Bangladesh from where these workers are imported.
Attending the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, a gathering of Indian diaspora in New Delhi, works minister and senior Malaysian Indian leader Samy Vellu denied that there were any such plans and that they were not targeted at any country or community.
It was reported recently that foreigners took up 20 percent of the 200,000-300,000 new jobs created last year, especially in the labour sector, according to the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER).
On domestic maids, no limit to length of stay is being imposed. But eligibility of employers may be raised from income of RM 3,000 to RM 5,000 ($900 to $1,700 approx).
The government will also plan crèches and childcare centres. The Economic Planning Unit is still studying this issue.
“At the same time, we are talking to the ministry of women, family and community development to assist in the setting up of child-minding centres that employ foreigners, so we can reduce dependency on domestic maids,” he said.
By reducing the number of foreign workers in many of the industries, employers will be forced to hire local workers at “reasonable” salaries.
“We are going to re-look at the policy of managing foreign workers in this country. We have a total of 2.3 million foreign workers, students and expatriates and short-term workers from southern Thailand.
“We want to lower (the number) to the 2006 figure of 1.8 million,” Abdul Manap told Sunday Star.
The ministry’s target is 1.5 million by 2015. However, it faces a dilemma because it approved applications from employers last year to bring in 200,000 foreign workers this year.
The ministry also has considered the manpower needs of the government’s development projects such as the Iskandar Development Region and the Northern Corridor Economic Region.
Only three industries – construction, manufacturing and plantations – heavily dependent on foreign workers because locals do not want to work in them will be exempted from the strict measures.
“For others like the service industry (hotel, restaurants, petrol stations, cleaning services, etc) and agriculture, we will come down hard,” Manap said.
For a start, effective now, said the official, the ministry would not approve the work permit of any foreign worker who has been in the country for five years or more.
This alone could reduce the number of foreign workers by 200,000 this year.