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Figure 3: Foreign Workers by Nationality as at June 2018

689

379

291

112 101
56 53
22 21 15 5 4 0.032

INDONESIA NEPAL BANGLADESH INDIA MYANMAR PAKISTAN PHILLIPINES VIETNAM CHINA THAILAND SRI LANKA CAMBODIA LAOS

Source: Immigration Department of Malaysia

6. On the basis of recent trends and with current growth targets and policies, the number
of foreign workers are estimated to rise to 2.6 million or 16.2% of the employed workforce
by 2020.

7. There are no official estimates on the numbers of undocumented foreign workers in
Malaysia. Using information from the undocumented workers amnesty and rehiring programs
between 2016 and 2018 of the Immigration Department, undocumented workers are
estimated to be about 1 million. This is made up of 750,000 persons who registered for the
various amnesty programs and another around 250,000 workers who had been arrested for
violation of immigration laws.

8. The World Bank in a recent study estimated there are some 1 to 2 million
undocumented workers in Malaysia, but how this figure was arrived at was not specified. The
UNODC provided an estimate of between 600,000 to 1.9 million of undocumented workers
in Malaysia, also unspecified. In the U.S, researchers estimate that up to 5% of the population
may be considered to be undocumented or irregular foreign workers. Using this metric as a
proxy, 5% of Malaysia’s population of 31 million will give a figure of 1.6 million as
undocumented workers. Others believe that undocumented workers are some 2 to 3 times the
number of documented workers, or 3.4 to 5 million compared to 1.7 million of officially
registered documented foreign workers.

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