Malaysia approves recruitment of 369,000 foreign workers

Malaysia approves recruitment of 369,000 foreign workers

Agence-France Presse, Kuala Lumpur

The Malaysian government has approved the recruitment of 369,021 foreign construction workers through its "fast-lane" program, an official said Monday.

Home Ministry secretary-general Aseh Che Mat said this figure exceeded the number of foreign construction workers who returned home during an amnesty for illegal immigrants ahead of the introduction of harsh new penalties in August.

"During the amnesty period, some 468,000 illegal immigrants voluntarily returned and almost half of them were construction workers," he was quoted as saying by the official Bernama news agency.

Aseh said the ministry had not been too strict in screening the applications from 3,268 construction firms and had given its approval to any number of workers applied for by the companies.

Illegal Indonesian immigrants made up 70 percent of the building industry's 500,000 foreign workers before the crackdown, according to the Master Builders Association of Malaysia (MBAM).

As building sites ground to a halt with the exodus of illegal workers, property developers warned that project delays would cost millions of dollars.

The government then reversed a ban on the recruitment of Indonesians for the construction sector, which had been imposed in February after two riots by Indonesian workers.