Minister Hamzah urges employers in Malaysia to employ more foreign workers registered under RTK

The Home Affairs Minister also shared that Expatriate Passes for foreign professionals working in Malaysia can now be issued on the same day of arrival in the country, down from the previous timeline of 30 days.

To date, there are 280,088 foreign workers registered under Malaysia's Manpower Recalibration Programme (Programme Rekalibrasi Tenaga Kerja, or RTK), according to Minister for Home Affairs (Kementerian Dalam Negeri, or KDN), Hamzah Zainudin. Of these numbers, more than 120,000 are involved in the nation's plantation sector—and this figure only represents between 20% to 30% of the labour required by the country’s plantation sector.

As such, Minister Hamzah has called on employers in Malaysia to "immediately employ" these workers listed under the RTK programme, and who are listed as legal foreign workers.

Based on Bernama's report, this was discussed during his visit to the Expatriate Services Division (ESD) Satellite Centre at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).

"I want to see that all of them are employed in our country and issued a valid PLKS (Temporary Employment Visit Pass). That’s what we want to do," the Minister said at the event's press conference.

Minister Hamzah also added that the government had agreed to allow the entry of 32,000 foreign workers with special exemptions to meet the manpower needs of the plantation sector, especially in the palm oil business. However, the Minister believes that amount of foreign workers "is not enough" to manage Malaysia's plantations, and would "actually need a much bigger number".

That said, the Minister shared that the aforementioned agreement hasn't been completed.

"It has been over a month, and not one has arrived," Minister Hamzah said.

In a similar update, the Minister also shared that Expatriate Passes for foreign professionals working in Malaysia can now be issued on the same day of arrival in the country, down from the previous timeline of 30 days.

This, he noted, is among some of the advantages brought on by the new ESD Satellite Centre at KLIA.

ICYMI: FAQs for Malaysian employers to hire existing foreign workers under Programme Rekalibrasi Tenaga Kerja (RTK)

Image / Ministry of Home Affairs

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