KUALA LANGAT, March 28 (Bernama) -- Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim said today the state government has the "administrative authority" to impose on employers a monthly levy of RM9 for each migrant worker they employ.
He said this in response to Human Resources Minister Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam's statement yesterday that the Parti Keadilan Rakyat-DAP-PAS coalition government had no authority to amend legislation to impose the levy.
Abdul Khalid said the RM3,000 to RM4,000 charged by migrant worker agencies was high and that for the Selangor government this was not reasonable.
He said this after officiating at the closing ceremony for the basic training course for Selangor enforcement officers series 1/2008 at the Enforcement Training Centre in Jugra near here.
Abdul Khalid said the state government bore the brunt of the influx of foreign workers into Selangor as they had an impact on infrastructure facilities like health, education and roads.
"We want to show the federal government how to keep records on illegal workers by having the state levy. I will set up a centralised information system to keep correct records on those who come and work in the state," he said.
Abdul Khalid said he had experience in doing so as he was among those responsible for the computerisation of the Immigration Department at one time and that the state's efforts could help the federal government resolve problems it faced.
He said the federal government perhaps had difficulty accepting ideas from political parties other than those of the Barisan Nasional (BN) but (the federal government) must listen to the people's wishes channelled through other parties.
"If they can come up with a better idea, they should do so," Abdul Khalid said.
He said millions of ringgit were paid by foreign workers to recruiting agencies that brought them to the country and the Malaysian government collected a levy but eventually the agents concerned did not know where the workers were and this "flood of foreign workers" created problems for society.
Although migrant workers, especially the illegal ones, were eventually repatriated by the government, the problem did not seem to end as they returned to the country and the ones who benefited were the travel agents and migrant workers recruitment agencies, Abdul Khalid said.
On the protest voiced by Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram) on the Selangor-levy plan, he said local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) like Suaram must place priority on national interests and not champion universal human rights and attack the state government for looking after its residents in their own homeland.
-- BERNAMA
See links:
Stop adding burden to Migrant Workers
Dealing With the New Selangor Mentri Besar’s “Boo-Boos”
