[UPDATED] Transfer migrant worker management to PMO: Santiago

KUALA LUMPUR – A former MP has urged the government to transfer the management of migrant workers from the Home Affairs Ministry and Human Resources Ministry to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), under the supervision of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and directed by a former judge, chief executive officer, or a retired senior civil servant.  

Former Klang MP, Charles Santiago also stressed that the Bestinet portal which has been controlled by a major labour broker in managing this multi-billion business must be dismantled. 

“Government servants and politicians work with these brokers and politicians often front labour recruitment agencies. 

“The recruitment process must be open and transparent in both countries. Charges for health, air travel etc must be made public to migrants,” he said in a press statement today. 

He also said the prime minister should encourage a zero recruitment policy, where all payments are propped up by the employers. This is because currently, labour brokers make a profit from employers and migrant workers which leads to debt bondage and forced labour accusations.

“Migrant management is being held hostage by unscrupulous middlemen in both countries.  

“Put differently, governments, employers and the economy are held ransom by middlemen (labour brokers). It has to stop for the country to go forward,” he added. 

Santiago emphasised bringing the 2019 Special Committee on Foreign Workers Management report headed by former Court of Appeal judge Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Yunus to the public’s view. 

However, the country chose to pay the price of inaction rather than making significant improvements to the management of migrants, he said. 

In July last year, the former human resources minister Datuk Seri M. Saravanan said that the recruitment process for foreign workers is unaffected by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s investigation into allegations of irregularities in the selection of 25 Bangladeshi companies as agents, including Bestinet Sdn Bhd. 

Bestinet is an IT firm supplying the Foreign Workers Centralised Management System, which is an end-to-end migrant worker management solution. – The Vibes, April 15, 2023