EVEN without having to stress their right to charge workers for their services upon arrival, Malaysian recruitment agencies – often acting as outsource agents – have already ‘squeezed’ so much money from migrant workers in the source country.
These agents extort money from foreign workers in source country in the form of “illegal/corrupt and informal kickbacks” demanded by them from manpower agents in the source country by charging the latter for better recruitment opportunity at the rate in excess of RM1,000 per worker, according to migrant workers’ rights activist Andy Hall.
“Bangladeshi kickback costs paid to Malaysian agents by their manpower agents seems to be the highest followed by that of the Indian, Nepal, Myanmar and Indonesia,” he told FocusM.
“It is often alleged that Malaysian agents and employers/HR staff tend to choose the source country based not on worker skills/suitability but on where they can get the opportunity to earn most in illegal kickback payments from both the agents in the source country as well as the poor workers.”
Hall was responding to a clarification in Malaysiakini by Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri M. Saravanan that licensed private employment agencies are allowed to impose a fee on employers, local jobseekers and non-citizen workers.
This comes about after two individuals were arrested by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) on Wednesday (Aug 3) in relation to private recruitment agencies.
“I received many calls after the arrest. They were confused as to whether private recruitment agencies are no longer allowed to collect fees from employers and employees,” Saravanan had told the news portal.
“I would like to clarify that the act of collecting placement fees is allowed as usual under the Private Employment Agencies Ac 1981.”
Under the act enforced by the HR Ministry through the Department of Labour who controls private employment agencies in Malaysia, the license holder is allowed to charge a fee to any local job seeker for all categories of employment whether to work within or outside Malaysia.
The placement fee can be charged either to employers, local jobseekers, or non-citizen workers, according to Saravanan.
“And then these Malaysian agents can by law, as the minister (Saravanan) is stressing now, take another month’s salary from the migrant workers on arrival as an additional charge too,” lamented Hall. “I always believe it’s better to avoid these Malaysian agencies totally as it’s a very confused and dirty issue, very costly, murky world of labour supply chain.”
Eventually, Hall observed that most costs and abuses associated with foreign manpower recruitment starts and ends in Malaysia itself instead of the source countries.
“A massive clean-up is needed urgently to combat forced labour risks for migrant workers recruited to work in Malaysia,” asserted Hall.
“That need for a clean-up should perhaps be the focus of the minister (Saravanan) here, not his stressing the right of these often corrupt and non-transparent Malaysian manpower/employment agencies to charge yet more money from the workers.” – Aug 8, 2022
