PUTRAJAYA, Aug 18 — Stricter rules and conditions for foreign worker employers as well as a new website to apply for foreign workers, excluding domestic maids, will be introduced “as soon as possible”, Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi said today.
The deputy prime minister who is also home minister said the application process would be cut short from between three and six months via the conventional way, to a maximum of 48 hours through this new website manned by the Home Ministry and the Human Resources Ministry.
“Previously, it was through agents, either through the foreign worker department in the Home Ministry or immigration department or Human Resources Ministry.
“When these agents go and apply conventionally, even though we have one stop centres, there are bottlenecks and to avoid accusations that the officers take bribes, the best solution is to have the online application,” he said, after chairing a Cabinet committee on foreign workers and illegal immigrants here.
Home Ministry secretary-general Datuk Seri Alwi Ibrahim, who was also at the press conference, said the website will be up and running "as soon as possible", but refused to give a time frame.
Domestic maids are under the jurisdiction of the Human Resources Ministry and the committee did not discuss the subject today.
District officers from the Home Ministry and the Human Resources Ministry will take the companies' capital, the contracts in hand, volume of order when considering the applications of other foreign workers.
The onus will be on the company to prove they were unable to hire locals for the jobs and the reasons for the turnover.
Zahid said the Human Resources Ministry has plans to train more local semi-skilled and skilled workers, while the "dangerous and difficult" jobs will be left for foreign workers.
He also said the committee had approved and will impose strict conditions on employers to better ensure migrant worker welfare during their duration in the country, and these include providing proper living quarters to prevent "social ills and crimes".
"In the long term, we will have centralised accommodation facilities for foreign workers by placing them in a specific area and provide facilities such as grocery stores, restaurants and places of worship.
"This is being done in several countries with many foreign workers," he said.
Zahid pointed out that foreign workers, especially in the construction industry here, are living below acceptable humane conditions.
The bedrooms for the workers will be a minimum of 4.5 per square metres and each toilet will be shared among five people.
It is unclear what the exact arrangement would be between the government and the employers who will fund the building as well as maintenance of the housing facilities.
A pilot housing project by employers in Pengerang, Johor that can cater to 10,000 workers kicked off six months ago to show how one facility in a particular centralised location can work.
