KUALA LUMPUR (March 14): A report with suggestions for improvements has been prepared by the Independent Committee on the Management of Foreign Workers (JKBPPA) and will be presented to the Cabinet soon for further action, according to Human Resources Minister M Kulasegaran.  

Kulasegaran told the Dewan Rakyat today that the Prime Minister has appointed 12 members of the JKBPPA, and that the committee is chaired by a former appellate court judge, while its members are made up of experts in various fields including law, economics, and the labor markets.

“Inputs and feedback for the purpose of preparing this report have been collected from several town hall sessions as well as eight sessions of focus group discussions held throughout the country, and involved participation from various parties, including regulatory agencies, employers, employees, employer’s and employees’ unions, service providers' unions, Parliamentarians, NGOs, civil society organisations, embassies of source countries, international organisations, academics and the public,” he said.

Kulasegaran was answering a question from Kampar MP Su Keong Siong, who requested the Minister to state in detail the new policy on hiring foreign employees and when the JKBPPA report on the preparations of laws regarding the country's foreign workers intake will be completed and presented.

The Minister said the suggestions in the report are clustered according to seven main cores. They are: national policy, recruitment policy, employment policy, repatriation policy, regularisation of undocumented workers, stateless and refugees person, and access to justice.

“All of these are contained in the report of the independent committee on the management of foreign workers to be tabled to the Cabinet soon and it will be presented to the public after that,” Kulasegaran said.