Remarks by Human Resources Minister M Saravanan and Home Minister Hamzah Zainuddin show these PN Ministers are incompetent and totally ignorant or feign to be ignorant regarding the problem of illegal or undocumented foreign workers in Malaysia.
I would like to say to M. Saravanan that he should be ashamed rather than be shocked and appalled. His ministry and the Home Ministry’s have failed miserably in handling the foreign workers issue in Malaysia. It is a vote of no confidence by the Government of Bangladesh with regard our government’s handling of this issue.
It is a known fact and Malaysians are aware that our Human Resource Minister and our Home Minister are incompetent in handling this problem. Many believe the Home Ministry may be the reason and source of this problem. Many believe issues are intentionally created to benefit some cronies and people with vested interest.
He was also quoted as saying ‘many (among the public) have the perception that there are many undocumented individuals in our country, but when we implement these new programmes, we realized that it was merely a perception’. This is probably the most ridiculous quote of the year and it shows that he is sleeping on his job or feign not knowing the scale of the problem.
The Home Ministry makes it almost impossible for illegal or undocumented foreign workers to register under the Labour Recalibration Programme and now claim that there are very few illegal or undocumented foreign workers in the country!
The Home Ministry allows only 2 categories of illegal or undocumented foreign workers to be legalised.
- Employers are allowed to legalise foreign workers who are already under their employment.
- New hirings may only be taken from the immigration depots.
It is impossible to legalise foreign workers under category (i) because if they are illegal or undocumented workers, how are their employers going to prove that they are already under their employment?
The Home Ministry requires those who intend to hire illegal immigrants under category (ii) to finance the repatriation of illegal immigrants being detained at these facilities on a one to one ratio, meaning to employ an employee legally from these depots, the employers have to finance the repatriation of another illegal immigrant back to his/her country.
The Home Ministry makes matters worse by insisting that the application to legalise these foreign workers can only be done through the office at Putrajaya.
It is not that there are only a few illegal or undocumented foreign workers in Malaysia but the Home Ministry makes it almost impossible to get them legalized and for those applications that have been submitted, the Home Ministry is sleeping on the job.
I hope the Human Resources Minister and Home Minister will wake up from their slumber and not continue to feign ignorance of the magnitude of the problem. They should face and face the problem head on. If they are incompetent, they should resign gracefully.
Dated this 21st day of April 2021 (Wednesday).
YB Dato’ Ngeh Koo Ham,
MP Beruas
