A crackdown that forced tens of thousands of mostly Indonesian illegal workers out of Malaysia has created a shortfall of cheap labor in critical industries, a newspaper reported yesterday.
Malaysian officials said bureaucratic bottlenecks at Indonesian emigration centers charged with providing proper documentation to Indonesians so they can return to work legally in Malaysia is endangering its construction and plantation sectors.
A program allowing Indonesians who left Malaysia under a recently ended amnesty to legalize themselves in Indonesia has come to a virtual standstill because of administrative delays there, The Star newspaper reported.
PHOTO: EPA
"I think it is in Indonesia's benefit to facilitate the workers' return because Malaysia has already done its part. Otherwise, we may have to source workers from other countries," the newspaper quoted the Malaysian Employers' Federation president, Mohamad Jafar Abdul Carrim, as saying.
No immediate comment from Jakarta on the report was available.
About 450,000 illegal workers are believed to have left Malaysia during the amnesty period, which ended Feb. 28.
An estimated 400,000 still remain in the country. The amnesty has been followed by a raid-and-arrest crackdown at work sites, which has netted nearly 1,000 workers so far.
Foreign workers from Indonesia, the Philippines, Bangladesh and India form the backbone of Malaysia's construction and plantation industries, doing low-paid jobs that Malaysians won't do.
About 1 million of them work legally.
Malaysia has promised to take back workers who left voluntarily during the amnesty program, provided they come in with proper papers.
As part of a deal made with Malaysia, Indonesia set up one-stop centers to process applications from Malaysian employers to legalize their former Indonesian employees.
But at one such center in Indonesia not one application has been approved in the last 10 days, The Star reported.
Home Minister Azmi Khalid and a team of officials are currently in Jakarta to meet top Indonesian officials to resolve the problem.
"We acknowledge that there is bottleneck and hope to sort things out with our counterparts here," Immigration Department enforcement director Ishak Mohamed was quoted as saying.
Mohamad Jafar of the employers' federation said at least two main economic sectors -- construction and plantations -- were critically hit by the delay in getting the workers back.
"House buyers face not getting their homes delivered on time, and developers will be liable for not completing their projects within the stipulated timeframe," he told the newspaper.
Mohamad Jafar said Indonesians made up 90 percent of the labor force in the construction industry, and between 50 percent and 60 percent on plantations.
Human Resources Minister Foong Chan Onn said Malaysia is already looking at other sources of labor such as Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS