Decision Pending on Undocumented Migrants in Malaysia

17 July 2010: The Malaysian Government is considering legalizing illegal immigrants which number up to two million people in the country, according to the Minister of Human Resource, Datuk S. Subramaniam.

He said it is a measure to fulfill high demands for foreign labor and to curb problems arising from vast population of undocumented foreigners who work illegally in many sectors.

“This is among suggestions we received from a special lab which is set up to study worker issue in the country,’” he said in a press conference on Thursday at Cyberjaya district, in the outskirt of Kuala Lumpur.

But a final decision is still pending on the issue of foreign workers and refugees.

Recently, the government came up with several plans and suggestions to cut down the number of illegal immigrants in Malaysia.

Among the suggestions is to introduce a biomedical identification card to differentiate legal and illegal workers before holding a major raid to tackle the immigration issue.

The major raid expected last February however was delayed because business community was afraid that such bold actions will affect their business that is heavily depended on foreign workers.

The Malaysia Employer Federation has earlier suggested the government to allow refugees in this country to join the work force – an idea welcomed by the UN refugee agency.

Thomas Chong