Independent committee on foreign worker policy, management soon

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 14 (Bernama) -- An independent committee to coordinate the overall policies and management of foreign workers will be set up, says Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. 

Dr Mahathir said the committee would be chaired by a top government officer with former judges and secretaries-general and the Institute of Labour Market Information and Analysis would be appointed as the secretariat.

"The issue of foreign workers has become a big problem for us, too many are entering and many came in illegally , so we need a committee to manage them," he told reporters after chairing a meeting of the Special Committee on Foreign Worker Scenario and Management in Malaysia at Parliament House here today.

Also present were Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and Human Resource Minister M. Kula Segaran.

Meanwhile, in the meeting, the prime minister said the government had agreed to discuss with the government of Bangladesh to open up the opportunity to all credible recruitment agencies to take in workers from the country.

Dr Mahathir said at the moment, 10 recruitment agencies were allowed to conduct intake of foreign workers from the country and it had led to monopoly and high charges.

"So we have to expand it to cover all agents so that there would be competition among them,” he said.

Apart from that, the Prime Minister said a single system to recruit workers without separating workers according to country would be established.

He however did not reveal further details on the system.

-- BERNAMA