Malaysia's HR Minister addresses concerns on "influx" of foreign workers

The minister has assured that employment opportunities for locals will not be affected when about 2.1mn foreign workers enter the country in the near future.

Malaysia's Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri M. Saravanan has assured that employment opportunities for Malaysians will not be affected when about 2.1mn foreign workers enter the country in the near future.

Addressing a supplementary question in Parliament regarding the guarantee of employment opportunities for Malaysians once foreign workers are brought in, and as cited in MalayMail, Minister Saravanan further assured that all applications from the industries to bring in more foreign workers after this would be studied in depth.

The Minister also specifically shared that a total of 2,127,722 foreign workers are expected to be working in various sectors in the country in one or two months. This figure includes the 1,244,400 foreign workers who are in the country, of which 238,943 with approved electronic Visa with Reference VDR and 644,379 undergoing a biometric and medical examination in the source countries.

“This is a huge number. We have never been in this position. Before COVID-19, the number of total foreign workers was 1.8mn — soon over 300,000 people will be added to the list," he commented.

In a separate, briefing session by the Ministry of Human Resources, Minister Saravanan also addressed concerns on the shortage of the foreign workforce.

Particularly, he spoke on the issues of the foreign workforce, the foreign recruitment process, and reasons applications to hire foreign workers by employers may be rejected or disqualified. 

Image / Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri M. Saravanan's Facebook

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