Malaysia will not go for fresh recruitment of foreign workers this year, said the country’s human resources minister to local media.
However, such a move will impact Bangladesh’s overseas employment sector as it has been trying to get to reopen the foreign labor market for a very long time, insiders have observed.
Quoting M Saravanan, minister for Human Resources, Malaysian state news agency Bernama reported on Monday that there would be no new intake of foreign workers in any sector until year-end as the locals would be given priority to fill in vacancies.
"We will not allow (new) foreign workers until year-end. They (foreigners) can come as tourists, if they are allowed," he told a news conference after launching the Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF) initiative under the National Economic Recovery Plan (PENJANA).
Malaysia stopped recruiting Bangladeshi workers in September 01, 2018, following syndication in migration process. Since then Bangladesh has been pursuing diplomatic efforts to reopen the Malaysian labor market.
Two countries also held three joint working group meetings. Another was scheduled to hold in Dhaka in February last to discuss the reopening of labour market. However, it was postponed due to political change in Malaysia.
Mr Saravanan said there are now about two million foreign workers in the country. "We try to reduce foreign workers in the workforce besides giving priority to locals to secure jobs," he added.
Meanwhile, the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training data showed that more than 1.0 million Bangladeshi workers had gone to Malaysia in the past four decades.
