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| Photo credit: hrsea |
Migrant labour also known as "foreign workers" refers to those workers who move in search of employment and work outside their home country. Some countries like Malaysia had migrant labour as these workers contribute in malaysia's social and economic development.
Malaysia will review bilateral agreements with 15 nations from which it sources labourers in a bid to address exploitative practices and manpower imbalances that have left thousands of migrant workers stranded without jobs, officials said.
Researches shows more than two million migrant workers are employed in Malaysia whose job is difficult as well as dangerous to do. 70% of Malaysia's migrant labour consist workers from Indonesia, Bangladesh and Nepal with the remainder coming from countries including India, Vietnam, Pakistan, and Thailand.
Since last year thousands of migrant workers mostly from Bangladesh and Nepal arrived in Malaysia and found themselves deep in debt and without jobs.
The state of these migrant workers is similar with concerns over workplaces abuses in Malaysia.
Reporters said, the labour and home affairs ministers said that distribution of labourers was uneven across the economy, prompting a need to review the bilateral agreements.
They said Malaysia still had a shortage of workers in the agriculture and plantations sector, while quotas have been exceeded in other industries.
"We will revisit the agreements looking at various elements including fees, costs, contract conditions, health and so on," Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said, adding that the government would allow the transfer of worker quotas across sectors.
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Human Resources Minister Steven Sim said authorities had completed investigations into five firms involved in hiring hundreds of workers who later found themselves without jobs.
He said employers who hired such workers must pay them wages even though they do not have jobs, adding that companies and individuals who violate the law will be barred from hiring migrant labourers.
Sim said 751 Bangladesh migrant workers had filed cases with the labour department to claim unpaid wages, involving a total of 2.2 million ringgit ($467,687).(some content credit: reuters)