KUALA LUMPUR (July 25): An opposition lawmaker said the government must cut out the role of middlemen, private employment agencies and labour brokers in the management of migrant workers.

"This is because importing migrant workers is a business opportunity," said Charles Santiago (DAP-Klang). "Thus it comes as no surprise that migrant workers brought into Malaysia far exceeds the actual manpower required here."

Pointing out that the foreign workers industry is a multi-billion ringgit business, Santiago also called for the setting up of a high-level independent committee to address structural issues including entrenched corruption.

"There is a lot of corruption involving government officials as revealed by Al-Jazeera's 101 East documentary which exposed entrenched graft in workers movement between Malaysia and migrant source countries like Bangladesh.

The documentary titled Malaysia's Migrant Money Trail, aired on July 20, suggests that a "corrupt nexus" between government officers and labour brokers makes the movement of workers to Malaysia a highly lucrative business.

"It is a multi-billion ringgit business," said Santiago. "That is why (Home Minister) Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi must seriously consider setting up a national migration policy review by establishing the high-level committee."

Speaking to reporters at the Parliament lobby, Santiago also urged the government to transfer the handling of migrant workers to the Human Resources Ministry instead of parking it under the Home Ministry.

He said the 11th Malaysia Plan stipulated that the Human Resources Ministry oversees the migrant workforce but the government is allegedly not making that shift yet.

He said the Human Resources Ministry is better equipped to oversee the foreign labour segment as it has information on which industry requires workers, and it would keep track on their movement.

"The national plan says that the proportion of migrant workers in the country's workforce be set at 15% by 2020. For now, Zahid has to account to Parliament on how the ministry plans to achieve the target given that we have about two and a half years left," he added.

Earlier this year, the government implemented the enforcement card (E-Card) that acts as a temporary validation for undocumented foreign workers before they obtain their legal papers from the respective countries.

However, out of 600,000 illegal workers who are said to be in the country, only 23% or 161,056 of them registered through the platform.

"This shows the online registration is an epic failure that has burnt a hole in our coffers as the registration could cost between RM4,000 and RM6,000," Santiago said.

He said many small-and-medium industries unfamiliar with the exercise used unscrupulous middlemen or labour brokers who failed to get their illegal workers registered.

"Employers facing high cost of production, and a slow economy were forced to let go of their undocumented workers rather than pay for their registration," he added.