As Malaysia’s door closes on low-pad migrant workers, companies scramble for staff

The new rules were introduced, at least in part, because of the fallout from a major job-scam crisis that saw some 200,000 workers, mainly from Bangladesh, arrive in Malaysia only to find the vacancies they had paid several thousand US dollars to fill did not exist.

Earlier, the Malaysian Indian Restaurant Owners Association (Primas) had issued a joint statement with 22 other trade groups calling for the government to push the deadline back to September, arguing that filling job vacancies had been difficult and the freeze on hiring migrant workers would force businesses to turn to the black market for labour.

“It is difficult to find workers in source countries within such a short time and employers will likely panic as a result, leading them to seek out the services of illegal agencies,” said Primas president Govindasamy Jayabalan in the statement. “This could lead to employers hiring less qualified foreign workers out of desperation.”

April 21 now marks the last day employers can get visa approval for new migrant workers, ahead of a May deadline to bring them into the country.

According to the government, the decision to halt recruitment is based on the metric of not allowing migrant workers to exceed 15 per cent of the total workforce by 2025, with the country of around 34 million already hosting some 2.17 million foreigners.

Speaking in parliament on March 26, Human Resources Minister Steven Sim defended the hiring freeze, saying government quotas had already almost been hit.

“Any decision on reopening of the foreign workers quota will be made after the government has the full details of the quota of workers who have not entered the country by May 31,” he said.

Malaysia has been heavily reliant on migrant workers since it