The Malaysia government has agreed to reinstate the foreign workers' replacement scheme two years after the Southeast Asian nation suspended the scheme, local media reports.
The reinstatement of the scheme will come into effect on Saturday (Jul 1) for the country’s all sector.
It would allow Malaysian employers to get replacements for foreign workers who had returned to their home country without having to go through a new application process, state-run news agency Bernama quoted the country’s Human Resources Minister M Kulasegaran.
Kulasegaran said "At the Cabinet meeting, the government approved the reinstatement of the system that was suspended (by the previous government) in 2017,
"It was an inconvenience to employers who were forced to go through the normal application process and incur further costs to get their replacement workers.
"The government believes this approach will not involve increasing the number of foreign workers but instead retain the number that has been approved for employers before," he said.
He also said the government's decision was expected to help resolve the issue of worker shortage faced by the industry to ensure production of goods, especially those for export, was not affected.
Employers wishing to apply for replacement of foreign workers should contact the Foreign Workers Management Division of the country’s Home Ministry, said the minister.
Malaysian job market for Bangladesh
Malaysia first opened its door to Bangladeshi migrant workers in 1992. However, they suspended recruitment in 1997, 2009 and recently in 2018, following allegations of malpractice and labour exploitation.
Also, hundreds of undocumented Bangladeshi workers have been detained in Malaysia as part of the country’s crackdown against illegal migrants since Jul 1 last year.
According to data from the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET), over 1,056,608 Bangladeshi workers have travelled to Malaysia with immigration clearance between 1978 and April 2019.
Among them, only 97 travelled to Malaysia in the first four months and the number rose to 175,927 in 2018.