MARCH 4 — The photo below (taken today, 4 March 2016) shows a row of foreign citizens sleeping at a shop frontage along Malaysia’s famous Petaling Street in Kuala Lumpur (Chinatown).
They are NOT Malaysians going by their looks and the language they converse in.
This is seemingly a growing and common sight in Kuala Lumpur these days. Sometimes you get to see them dotting the cities aimlessly and with a travelling bag, their only possessions.
While the government of Malaysia may have programmes in place to provide welfare and care for the growing homeless Malaysians, here is a situation of homeless foreigners who may become a ballooning problem given the country’s continued and blatant reliance in cheap, foreign labour.
The government of Malaysia’s recent announcement to bring in another 1.5 million foreign workers has raised serious concerns. There already is anywhere close to 6-8 million migrant workers in the country. And of this total, easily some 2-4 million may in all likelihood be without legal status.
In the past we have heard tales of woes from foreign workers who have been abused by recalcitrant employers. These migrant workers also have their fair share of emotional distress given the fact that they are separated from their loved ones and family for long periods.
In addition, struggling to earn and be able to send back hard cash to help support their poor families back home can be very stressful as these cheap migrant labour often end up working long hours under harsh conditions.
Those who get cheated by unethical employers and recruiting agents and end up without a valid work permit (renewals) would be unable to find decent employment and thereby risk becoming homeless.
Likewise, if they cannot afford healthcare and fear getting detained, they make potential homeless With millions of them in the country, what is the government’s strategy to deal with this potentially ballooning problem of homeless people and those forced to become vagrants?
We are already witnessing many foreign beggars in the street. A walk down town in Kuala Lumpur is all that is needed to know of the presence of foreigners who are becoming homeless and jobless in Malaysia.
Securing cheap labor must be reciprocated with moral and ethical responsibility. Employers and the sending and receiving governments cannot be blind to this ballooning problem and worse, lump the responsibility of giving due care to the tax payer or the ailing migrant workers.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.
