Malaysia will not allow foreign workers to take any new jobs in the country until the end of the year to help unemployed citizens find new work, the government has announced.
“We are trying to reduce [the number of] foreign workers in the workforce besides giving priority to locals to secure jobs,” Human Resources Minister M. Saravanan told a newspaper.
The move is expected to worsen the economic prospects of migrant workers from Bangladesh, Myanmar and elsewhere.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, an estimated two million foreigners worked in Malaysia, according to official figures, although observers say the actual number could be double that as many migrant workers are employed illegally. Read more