If the initial results of a RM5 million pilot project study are any indication, foreign workers in Sabah from neighbouring countries are a serious health and medical risk to all Malaysians.

The pilot project study also endorses the compulsory annual medical check-ups since July last year for all foreign workers in the state.

sabah migrants 181204 The newly-set up Foreign Workers Health Assessment Centre (FWHAC) in Tawau has discovered that 21 percent of new foreign workers entering Sabah from Indonesia alone since August last year had communicable diseases.

The health and medical risks cited include hepatitis, tuberculosis and sexually transmitted diseases, among others.

"We worked together with the Immigration Department to immediately deport those who failed their medical examinations," said Rahman Ghani who heads the state government-owned FWHAC.

"This helps to prevent them from ending up as illegals in the state if they are subsequently found by their potential employers to be medically unfit to be employed," he added.

Complaints over piecemeal approach

He was commenting on public complaints by all chambers of commerce and the Sabah Timber Industries Association (STIA) that the FWHAC was taking a piecemeal approach and calls for it to either be a complete package or done away with completely.

The STIA and the chambers also want the medical and health screening costs revised downwards at the Tawau centre and for the compulsory annual medical check-ups for foreign workers.

"If possible, we urge the government to cancel the implementation of holding centres to carry out medical examinations on foreign workers in Sabah and maintain the existing system with improvements to the services provided," said STIA secretary-general Stephen Chaw.

"The high cost of employing foreign workers affects the efficiency and productivity of the timber industry," he added.

Rahman admits that only 341 newly-arrived foreign workers, all from Indonesia, have been screened so far by the FWHAC in Tawau but points out that at present the centre is only conducting a pilot project study.

Rahman rules out setting up more FWHACs in other parts of the state in the immediate future given the start-up costs but nevertheless “we are communicating with the relevant authorities and the Immigration Department to make the health and medical screening compulsory for new foreign workers”.

The decision to make the screening compulsory at the Tawau centre is expected to be made very soon.

He sees more FWHACs being setting up over the longer term and will push for such centres in other areas in Sabah especially in Sandakan for workers from the Philippines.

"Hopefully, we will succeed although it would be costly. This will help people from being infected by imported communicable diseases,” said Rahman. “Bear in mind that there are about 300,000 registered foreign workers in Sabah and a lot of them, because of the previous procedures, did not go through medical check-ups."

"But now all of them are required to go through a medical check-up once in a certain period of time. The FWHAC is only for those foreign workers who arrive in Sabah for the first time. For purposes of work permit renewals, they don’t have to go through the centre but normal screening procedures at state government-approved clinics."

Relatively low charges

He also defended the charges at the FWHAC as relatively low compared with the RM 600 per worker that a labour agent collects.

FWHAC fees include a non-refundable RM 210 deposit in case of extra quarantine stay for unfit workers pending deportation and also to offset damage to facilities provided, RM 180 medical examination fee for male workers and RM 190 for female workers, RM 95 for a maximum two nights stay and food at the dormitory and RM 45 for each extra day’s stay if an agent cannot collect foreign workers on time.

"We have not received any complaints about the services provided at this centre so far," said Rahman.

Most of the complaints about the high charges at the FWHAC apparently stems from the manner in which the centre is organised.

For starters, the FWHAC is ostensibly run by Growarisan Sdn Bhd, sub-contracted by Warisan Harta Sdn Bhd (WHS), a wholly state government-owned investment holding company which owns the FWHAC. Growarisan in turn has outsourced the FWHAC to Visa Suria Holdings Sdn Bhd for the provision of support services such as transportation, meals, lodging and medical examination etc

Annual medical check-ups for all foreign workers are now part of the requirements for the renewal of their work permits. The annual medical check-ups are also co-ordinated by WHS together with Growarisan, the sub-contractor, another source of grievance.

On the plus side, the compulsory annual medical check-ups are expected to result in a reduced incidence of communicable diseases in Sabah and minimising the real risk of these spreading to the rest of the country. Sabah already has the highest incidence of TB in Malaysia, according to health authorities in the state.

Gov’t hospitals treating high number of foreigners

The state’s 21 government hospitals are already setting a national record of sorts for treating the highest number of foreigners in the country.

For instance, 30 percent of those seeking treatment at the hospital in Lahad Datu district last year were foreigners. Sabah has a hospital-to-local population ratio of 1:120,000, which is adequate for the local population of 2.9 million.

“However, foreigners using our hospitals bring a lot of problems with them such as non-payment of bills, use of fake identification documents and pregnancy complications because most of them do not undergo ante-natal treatment,” said a Health Department source. “Many foreigners also sought treatment for diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, dengue, cholera and typhoid.”

Noting that Sabah had a high incidence of communicable diseases, with 3,267 malaria and 3,394 tuberculosis cases reported last year, the Health Department source said the Health Ministry is emphasising on preventive measures under the Ninth Malaysia Plan (9MP). This includes the compulsory annual medical check-ups for foreign workers besides the FWHAC. The Health Ministry has been allocated RM746mil for Sabah under the 9MP.

Chaw’s beef is solely based on the money aspects i.e. that even before the FWHAC and the compulsory annual medical check-ups, the total cost of employing a foreign worker in the timber industry, for example, ranged between RM1606.50 and RM2,716.50 depending on whether male or female, Indonesian or Filipino.

In the manufacturing sector, there is an annual levy of RM960 per head of foreign worker.