Weed out exploitation at its roots, urge labour groups

PETALING JAYA: With a proposal being studied to severely penalise companies bringing in foreign workers without providing them jobs, groups have called for a “deep clean and overhaul” of the recruitment processes.

They said with the matter now brought out in the open by Plantation and Commodities Minister Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani, it is time for all parties to go the extra mile to resolve the labour exploitation issue at its root.North-South Initiative executive director and co-founder Adrian Pereira spoke of “a whole web of individuals”, including civil servants, profiteering from the vulnerability of migrant workers.

“To bring in workers with official job visas when the jobs do not really exist is actually human trafficking. This can only be done with the collusion of civil servants.

“There could even be special approvals by higher authorities or politicians,” he said when contacted.

While he welcomed Johari’s proposal of heftier fines on employers or recruitment agencies guilty of such practices, he said this would only act as a deterrent.

“There should be some kind of punishment. We must expose the masterminds and their modus operandi and fix the recruitment processes,” he added.

Pereira suggested that the government place labour migration under the Prime Minister’s Department in the interim, saying it is evident that the Human Resources and Home ministries are not capable of handling the tasks well.

Migrant workers’ rights group Our Journey director Sumitha Shaanthinni Kishna echoed the view, saying “the mess” involving migrant workers recruitment needs to be addressed urgently.

She urged the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to probe the foreign workers quota requests which resulted in over 900,000 approvals last year.

“There should be a temporary suspension on the intake of migrant workers under this quota, specifically for problem countries like Bangladesh.

“All quotas issued need to be reassessed to ensure there are genuine companies with genuine jobs. This must be done expeditiously to prevent workers coming in through other irregular means.

“MACC needs to be on board to investigate how these quotas were issued and if procedures were followed to ensure that the companies and jobs were verified,” she told The Star.

National Association of Human Resources Malaysia (Pusma) president Zarina Ismail said “invisible hands” could be eliminated if the government embarked on overall digitalisation of the recruitment processes.

She said an integrated system combining the roles of government agencies involved in foreign labour recruitment can help address integrity issues.

“I have repeated this many times and even communicated it to the ministerial level. However, there is nothing concrete done to date.

“With an integrated system we can identify the labour needs of each employer and only allow them to apply for the necessary number required to run their businesses,” she said.

She also called for the government to make it mandatory for employers in need of foreign workforce to apply through licensed recruitment agencies in Malaysia.

On Thursday, Johari revealed that he had presented a proposal to the Cabinet for a compound of up to RM30,000 per worker be imposed against companies that fail to provide jobs for foreign workers they recruited.

The minister said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim supported the proposal and wanted the issue to be resolved promptly.

In March last year, the government approved 995,396 foreign worker employment permits in five critical sectors – manufacturing, construction, plantation, agriculture and services – through the Foreign Worker Employment Relaxation Plan (FWERP).