August 1998 Volume 5 Number 4

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The Malaysian Special Cabinet Committee on Foreign Workers in mid-July agreed to permit 96,000 foreign workers "in jobs shunned by Malaysians" to remain for up to six years instead of departing on August 15,1998 as scheduled.

Foreigners currently employed in restaurants, gas stations, cemeteries, golf courses, vegetable gardens, food manufacturing, orphanages and senior homes, laundry shops, janitorial jobs, male barber shops, tailor shops and cargo services can have their work permits renewed at the request of their employers. Employers can renew work permits by presenting a medical certificate from Fomema (the Foreign Workers Medical Examination Monitoring Agency), the worker's passport and the employer-paid levy.

In August 1996, some 225,000 foreign workers were legalized, but as of July 1998, only 20 percent of them had been registered by 8,300 employers as required. Registration requires workers to undergo medical checks and employers to pay a levy. Employers face M$30 a day fines for failure to register their foreign workers. Fomema anticipates 300,000 foreign workers will seek medical examinations before August 1998, compared to 52,000 exams in April 1998 and 29,000 in May 1998.

The Committee refused to permit renewals for foreigners employed as golf caddies, supermarket helpers, in medical centers or private clinics, beauty salons, karaoke lounges or courier services. However, the committee also announced that employers could recruit 50,000 new foreign workers for factories in 1998, 30,000 new workers for plantations, and 20,000 for work in Sabah.

The committee reported that as of July, Malaysia had 977,276 registered foreign workers, including 137,851 domestic helpers; 285,266 factory workers; 217,200 plantation workers; and 210,270 construction workers; there are 111,097 legal foreign workers employed in services (another report says 1.14 million legal foreign workers in the 8.8 million Malaysian work force). Employers will be permitted to recruit 25,000 new foreign workers for manufacturing and 10,000 new foreign workers for plantations.

The Malaysian government announced that legal foreign workers would have to begin making contributions to the social security system, the Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) to "keep more Malaysian money in Malaysia." Employees contribute 11 percent and employers 12 percent to the EPF.

The Immigration Department announced that it was planning to remove 200,000 foreign workers whose work permits expire before August 15. So far in 1998, the Immigration Department removed 51,000 foreigners who passed through its eight detention camps, compared to 38,200 in 1997; there were 8,200 foreigners in detention camps in July 1998.


"200,000 aliens to be sent back," The Star, July 17, 1998. Hong Boon How, "96,000 foreign workers can continue to work in certain sectors," Star, July 10, 1998. Jahabar Sadiq, "Malaysia hires foreigners despite rising jobless," Reuters, July 9, 1998.