Foreign workers should be under HR ministry, says Kula
Published on: Wednesday, December 27, 2023
By: FMT
Ipoh Barat MP M Kula Segaran says Malaysia is the only country among the 64 studied in a 2019 report in which foreign worker management is handled by two ministries. (Bernama pic)
PETALING JAYA: Deputy law and institutional reform minister M Kula Segaran has called for the human resources ministry to be entrusted with the responsibility of handling and managing the recruitment of foreign workers.
Citing a report produced by an independent committee during his time as the human resources minister under the Pakatan Harapan administration, the Ipoh Barat MP said Malaysia was the only country of the 64 studied where foreign worker management was divided between two ministries.
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Presently, the recruitment and management of foreign workers is handled by both the human resources ministry and the home ministry.
“It is evident that the wheel does not need to be reinvented; we have a well documented solution at our disposal,” Kula said in a statement.
“The independent committee on foreign workers produced a report explicitly stating that the human resources ministry should be the sole authority responsible for handling foreign workers.
“The findings of this thorough investigation are crystal clear: out of 64-odd countries managing foreign workers, Malaysia stands alone in having two ministries involved in this crucial task.
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“This dual responsibility is not only inefficient but also counterproductive.”
He added that making the human resources ministry the sole authority responsible for handling foreign workers would result in a more efficient, transparent, and cohesive system.
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Kula’s comments came after human resources minister Steven Sim announced that he would meet home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail to discuss policy improvements related to foreign workers.
Sim had referred to an incident on Dec 20 in which 171 Bangladeshis were seen marching together in Pengerang, Johor, in a video that went viral.
Kota Tinggi police chief Hussin Zamora said the Bangladeshis were heading to the Bayu Damai police station to file a report after claiming that their agents had failed to provide them with jobs as promised.
The workers were detained on the same day by the armed forces and handed over to the immigration department for overstaying.
Sim told FMT that his ministry was probing the matter and would summon the agents involved and employers mentioned in the foreigners’ documents.
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