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19. The use of third party employment agencies both in Malaysia and especially in the
source countries, have given rise to the spectre of hidden costs and charges. These concealed
practices are the principal causes of debt bondage.

20. The handling of employment for foreign spouses remains unsatisfactory. The policies
in this area remain unclear and where there is documentation of procedures they do not seem
to be adhered to. Officials in the multiple regulatory agencies involved have unspecified
discretions in handling applications and decisions to be made are not time-bound nor adhered
to. Although generally more facilitative, foreign spouses of expatriates have faced similar
difficulties at times when seeking employment in Malaysia, many of whom have the
qualifications and high skills equivalent to the expatriate which could be of tremendous value
for Malaysia.

21. In relation to the violation of international norms, Malaysia has poor ratings for
compliance and has been associated with forced labour practices, employing child labour and
insufficient measures to deal with the presence of human trafficking of undocumented
migrant workers. Moreover, the right to work of refugees and of stateless persons has yet to
receive formal recognition.

22. Clear information and standard operating procedures for the employment of foreign
workers (expatriates, domestic workers and low skilled foreign workers) and the associated
laws/regulations applicable are not easily accessible and dispersed in the various websites and
other repositories.

4.6 The lack of an end-to-end online system and an inadequate database of foreign
workers

23. In addition to complications and lack of transparency from the deployment of multiple
online service providers handling a variety of processes in the different stages of the
management of foreign workers (application stage, approval stage, recruitment stage,
replacement stage and renewal stage), these processes are not well integrated and do not feed
into a central database system (see Box 8).

24. Multiple agencies using a multitude of criteria, formulas, rules and methods to
determine and approve the entry of foreign workers across the designated sectors and in the
three different territories in Malaysia have led to total confusion and acute dissatisfaction
among all stakeholders (the criteria and rules are summarized in the “red book”).4

25. Another consequence of the chaotic approval process is that it actually undermines the
objective of reducing reliance on foreign workers because of ineffective controls on the
number of workers actually entering the workforce. This has additionally contributed to
arbitrary decisions to cut legitimate demand for workers and to even freezes in access to
foreign workers without clear explanations and coherent reasons provided.

4
The “Red Book” refers to the criteria and rules summarized in the Buku Panduan Dasar, Prosedur Dan Syarat-Syarat
Penggajian Pekerja Asing Di Malaysia, Jabatan Tenaga Kerja Semenanjung Malaysia, 2011.

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