KUALA LUMPUR, June 23 — The Ministry of Home Affairs’ (MOHA) proposal to allow illegal immigrants detained at the Immigration detention centre to be employed by local employers could help deal with the shortage of labour in the construction sector, says Malaysian Bumiputera Contractors Association (PKBM) president Datuk Azman Yusoff.
He said due to restrictions on the entry of foreign workers, many construction firms and contractors were still struggling to find workers.
“This shortage has led to companies facing demands for wage increases from the existing workers.
“In the end, companies have to bear the high costs, and with the impact felt from the implementation of the movement control order (MCO) following the Covid-19 pandemic, many contractors are now facing financial difficulties,” he said in a statement.
He was commenting on the statement by Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin that as of June 15, there were 17,226 illegal immigrants and 243 employers arrested for various immigration offences in the country, while the total capacity at Immigration detention centres nationwide was only 12,530 people.
Hamzah said MOHA was working on the logistics to send the illegal immigrants back to their home countries, and employers were encouraged to legally employ the foreigners from the Immigration depots if they required more manpower.
Azman said the movements of immigrants who were legally hired could be tracked, especially after their personal identification documents were recorded and entered into the government database with strict operating procedures (SOPs) enforced by employers and ongoing monitoring by the authorities.
“PKBM is confident that the Malaysian Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) can also play a key role in the provision of infrastructure and facilities at the Centralised Labour Quarters owned by the Construction Labour Exchange Centre Berhad, which would facilitate the monitoring of these immigrants,” he said.
Azman said without compromising the rights of local workers, PKBM required more than 1,000 workers at present, and felt that with some strategic planning, Malaysian construction firms would not have to rely entirely on foreign workers in two years’ time.
“This is through the efforts to enable the use of the industrial building system (IBS) which is already being implemented, and gaining ground in the construction industry today. IBS is the best system to reduce employers’ dependence on foreign workers and the PKBM supports all efforts to increase the use of the IBS system in all construction sectors nationwide,” he said. — Bernama
