Malaysia to deport one million foreign workers

SINGAPORE, January 3: Even as Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad appeals to people to "buy local" in an effort to resuscitate the country’s economy, Malaysia plans to deport one million foreign workers who have legal work permits but have been retrenched from various sectors affected by the currency and stock market meltdown.

This is just one of the government’s many "belt-tightening" measures undertaken to conserve depleting foreign exchange reserves. Another move is a proposal to ban ministers from taking vacations overseas. Deputy Home Minister Tajol Rosli Ghazali, who announced the new amendments in the Immigration policy yesterday, said almost half the number of registered foreign workers in the country were deported. He added that the move was meant to protect the jobs of local workers during the economic crisis. Steps were also being taken to stem illegal migration into the country, he said. These would include raids on work places suspected of harbouring such workers. During the last six months, the Malaysian ringgit has touched an all-time low of 3.97, while the country’s stock market capitalisation has nosedived by 50 per cent.

The minister disclosed that the number of illegal foreign workers in Malaysia was estimated at 800,000, most of them being Indonesians. At least 6,543 illegal immigrants were in detention centres in October and it cost the government M$10 a day to feed each detainee, he said. The deputy home minister said foreign workers still employed would be distributed among the industries in strategic sectors like plantations and export-orientated manufacturing industries. Meanwhile, the Malaysian Immigration Department decided to raise the levy on foreign workers, except for housemaids and those in the agricultural sector, to M$1,500 (Rs 15,000), from the earlier M$360-1,200. The new ruling took effect on Thursday. One third of Malaysia’s two million registered foreign workers are domestic workers.

Although the majority of illegal workers hail from Indonesia, Philippines, and Bangladesh, there has also been an influx from 28 countries, including Albania, Ghana, Somalia and Nepal. Indian passport holders number about 20,000-30,000, with a few hundred workers falling into the "illegal" category.