Malaysia’s National Professors Council (MPN) today proposed that the federal government amend the Employment (Amended) Act 2012 to cover the rights of foreign workers, as they are an important driver to the nation’s economy, reports The Malay Mail Online. 

The council’s Deputy Secretary-General, Prof Dr Kamaruddin M. Said, said the government must realise that Malaysia will continue to rely on foreign labour - especially in labour intensive sectors - for quite some time to come and it is high time to accord them fair treatment.

“We have (an estimated) six million foreign workers. That is not a small number. We should get them protected by the Employment Act,” he said.

There are around 2.9 million legal foreign workers registered in Malaysia, according to police figures cited in an earlier presentation at the MPN’s conference on foreign workers.

It is believed that there is one illegal immigrant for every documented migrant worker in the country, though both the police and the MPN stressed that it is difficult to come to a conclusive number due to the elusive nature of illegal immigrants.

According to estimates by the Human Resources Ministry cited by the police, legal and illegal migrant workers have sent some MYR 25 billion (USD ) back to their home countries in 2013 alone.

Prof Kamaruddin said Malaysia must come to terms with the fact that it will continue to rely on foreign labour to keep its industries running, for the simple reason that there are not enough Malaysians to fill in the millions of jobs available.

Of the country’s 30 million citizens, seven million are still in school and there are an estimated 13 million new job openings in various sectors ranging from agriculture to manufacturing, he added.

“This means we must make sure foreign workers are treated well... we propose that we should change the term to guest workers, because legal foreign workers bring a very positive effect to our country,” he said.

Prof Kamaruddin said the government also needs to revamp the existing system used to bring in foreign workers, who in many cases end up deep in debt even before starting work as they rely on employment agencies that allegedly charge high fees to get them jobs.

He said the MPN suggests that Malaysia enter into direct government-to-government arrangements with all countries that supply workers to Malaysia to shield the workers from exploitation.