Malaysia to cut 500,000 foreign workers by 2009

The Malaysian government is planning to send home up to 500,000 foreign workers by 2009 in a bid to force employers here to hire locals, according to a report Sunday.

The move follows a denial by the government earlier this month that it had frozen the recruitment of workers from India after reports quoted officials saying a ban was in place.
There are about 2.3 million foreign workers in Malaysia, according to home ministry figures, with the vast majority mainly employed in manufacturing and agriculture as well as in domestic work.

"We have been lax with the ruling to allow employers to cut costs with cheaper foreign labour," the Home Ministry's top civil servant Raja Azahar Raja Abdul Manap told the Star daily.
"But now, they have to turn to locals and pay a reasonable salary based on supply and demand," he added.

Raja Azahar told the paper his ministry was planning to have only 1.8 million foreign workers in the country by next year with the number dropping further to 1.5 million by 2015.
He told the Star only foreign workers in the construction, manufacturing and plantation industries would be exempt from the plan.

The government will not approve work permits of unskilled foreign workers in Malaysia for five years or more, it reported, with skilled workers getting a maximum of 10 years.
New minimum requirements could also be introduced for employers of foreign domestic help, it reported.

"We are looking into the possibility that only those who earn more that 5,000 ringgit (1,534 dollars) (compared to 3,000 ringgit presently) be allowed to employ foreign maids," he said.

Agence France-Presse - 1/20/2008