As a result, in Malaysia, many local industries such as construction, agricultural, services and manufacturing sectors have been invariably anchored by foreigners. As time goes by, even the hawkers are now hiring foreigners who eventually will also take over the kitchen as the chef. In many instances, foreigners also bring in their family members hereafter settling down and few met their better halves here and decided to make Malaysia as their new home. Most of the migrant workers in Malaysia hailed from countries such as Indonesia, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Nepal hired in the construction, manufacturing, agricultural and services sector or as domestic helpers.

When the government decided to freeze approvals on hiring new migrant workers, few local furniture factories had to wind up, owing to the labour crunch. Also, operations by the authorities especially the Immigration Department against undocumented migrant workers have left many construction sites short-handed and plantations virtually unattended. While we cannot deny the positive contributions of these migrant workers to the country’s economy, it is the government’s responsibility to make sure that the interest of local workers is of the highest priority and derived policies as a result of that. These, in turn, makes it very difficult for employers to map out their long-term hiring plan.

The biggest challenge for the government in managing and tackling migrant workers’ issues involves the complex and non-integrated flows involving multiple stakeholders that are responsible for the long delays migrant workers are facing for their applications to be processed. Lengthy and complicated processes across each step often provide disincentive migrant workers to migrate regularly. Based on the independent assessment commissioned by Bestinet, it is recognized that the Foreign Workers Centralized Management System (FWCMS) as an IT-based system has overcome the deficiencies of the labour migration recruitment process and shortening the recruitment process and eliminate abuses of migrant workers coming to Malaysia.

Bestinet has built, deployed and maintained the FWCMS with the mission of a holistic and end-to-end platform that is beneficial to all stakeholders, where it has built-in compliance transparent recruitment and management of migrant workers.  The FWCMS has proven to benefit all stakeholders in public and private sectors, especially the migrant workers themselves by reducing the time taken for processing and migrant workers can start work in Malaysia which has taken 6-9 months to 1 -3 months.

By: NOREMI BINTI MD SHAARI, COO

International Labour Organizations (ILO) has been at the forefront of highlighting malpractices in recruitment processes where the primary concern is on the high migration costs i.e. high fees paid to recruiters which have the impact of the migration on the migrant worker to indebtedness and contributing to the unbalanced distribution gains from migration (Piyasari Wickramasekara and Nilim Baruah; January 2017). High recruitment costs also lead to irregular migration by deterring the migrant workers from using the legal channels or driving them to abscond from their employers when excessive recruitment fees are deducted from their wages. Based on ILO Migration Agenda in 2014, fair recruitment is adopted as one of its main pillars and is understood to mean as recruitment carried out within the law, in line with international labour standards, and with respect for human rights, without discrimination and protecting the migrant workers from abusive situations. There are many challenges to ensure fair recruitment; one of it is to combine the responsibility of both labour sending countries and receiving countries of a fair recruitment process, by harmonizing the legislation in conformity with existing international standards.

Divergences between origin and destination countries have created opportunities for unscrupulous recruitment agencies to exploit the system to their advantage. In fact, labour migration has become a business involving substantial amounts of money, often paid by the most vulnerable and unprotected categories of low-level migrant workers from developing countries. If the cost can be reduced, more money would be left in the hands of the migrants and their families and their communities’ benefits. A study by the Action Group in 2015 stated that a human rights-based approach is essential to ensure that migrant workers have real opportunities for decent work. The main challenges for the governments of the labour sending and receiving countries are to promote legal migration, regulate the labour market for labour recruiters efficiently, establish an adequate enforcement mechanism and encourage partnership between public employment services and private employment agencies, protect migrant workers from abuses and prevent unfair competition in recruitment. The recruitment process involves three components: first mile issues in labour sending countries, the migration process itself, and the last mile issues in labour receiving countries. Measures can be taken at each stage of the recruitment process include the pre-departures procedures and services, regulating labour recruiters including private employment agencies through statutory legislation, bilateral agreements (Memorandum of Understanding), reducing recruitment costs, and corruptive practises, education migrants about working conditions and rights, and supporting business to adopt and implement policy commitments. 

In Bestinet, our mission is to create a holistic platform that is beneficial to all stakeholders while protecting the rights and improving the quality of life for the migrant workers and their families. We always believe that by carrying this out, the world would be fairer and more equitable. Through the years of our establishment, we have developed modules within the holistic platform which is in conformance to what ILO and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDG) have stated all along. Modules such as Bio-Recruitments, Bio-Induction and Bio-Medical System in which, if implemented in labour sending countries would resolve the challenges highlighted by ILO. We also have built a platform that complements and enhances the capabilities of the labour sending countries called Migrant Management System (MiGRAMs). Both platforms, either in labour sending and receiving countries are integrated with which the management of migrant workers be done holistically. These give benefits for all stakeholders including the migrant workers themselves.