SEBERANG PERAI, Jan 29 — Malaysia should emulate Singapore by introducing laws mandating quarters for migrant labour, said Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow.
“We hope the state and federal governments will be brave to make a similar move to resolve the issues of providing accommodation for foreign workers in this country,” he said in his speech at the opening of Westlite Accommodation in Simpang Ampat here.
Chow said the matter was a perennial problem, noting that it was raised again during the state planning committee’s meeting yesterday when it decided that another project to build hostels for foreign workers in the state should be undertaken.
He said the approval of yet another such hostel should help convince the relevant authorities about the need for such facilities in the future.
“With hostels like this, we will not be facing the issue of foreign workers living in residential areas that was causing social problems to locals in the areas,” he said.
“We have received complaints from residents who can’t bear the nuisance of overcrowding by foreign workers in some houses and their social habits of washing and even bathing outside the houses,” he said.
Such disparities were largely due to different social norms between locals and foreign workers, he said.
Unlike Malaysia, Chow said neighbouring countries have created ecosystems that also contained accommodation for foreign workers for decades.
“We are already 30 years too late but now with so many workers’ hostels projects in the pipeline, we can make available many units to cater to the factories’ needs,” he said, adding that these could also aid immigration enforcement.
“Only workers with permits are allowed to live in these hostels so the authorities do not need to conduct raids in these hostels but they will be able to detect illegals living outside,” he said.
Chow later handed over the certificate of completion to Westlite Accommodation’s operator, Centurion Corporation Ltd (Centurion).
The 6,600-bed hostel is the first such accommodation to be opened in Penang with seven others currently in the pipeline.
State housing committee chairman Jagdeep Singh Deo said there are 97,000 registered foreign workers in Penang.
“The state has approved a total of six foreign worker hostels including the one approved yesterday,” he said, adding that a request for the proposal has been completed for a seventh.
Two of the hostels will be built on the island with another five on the mainland and Jagdeep said one of the upcoming projects was also being built by Centurion.
Westlite Accommodations is located near the Bukit Tambun toll and the first batch of foreign workers will be able to move in by the end of February.
The RM72.3 million project is a three-block, 11-storey dormitory complete with amenities such as a food court, supermarket, mobile phone shop, internet services, prayer rooms, futsal court, gymnasium, volleyball and badminton courts and a sick bay.
Centurion’s accommodation business managing director Tony Bin said this dormitory was the company’s seventh project and the first outside Johor.
“We get occupancy rates of more than 90 per cent in our properties in Johor so we are expecting similar occupancy rates in Penang,” he said.
Centurion currently operates 30 dormitories, with over 61,000 beds, in Singapore, Australia, United Kingdom and United States covering over 61,000 beds.
It has over 30,300 beds in Malaysia including the latest one in Penang. The average rent per bed is about RM130 per month.
