The government has approved 500,000 work permits for the construction sector following the recent mass deportation of illegal immigrants which crippled the building industry, the official Bernama news agency said today.

Deputy Human Resources Minister Abdul Latiff Ahmad said 300,000 of these workers had already entered the country.

"We hope the entry of these workers, especially those from Indonesia, will fill up the void created following the enforcement of the Immigration Act," he said.

Tough new measures

Illegal Indonesian immigrants made up 70 percent of the building industry's 500,000 foreign workers before the crackdown, according to the Master Builders Association of Malaysia (MBAM).

Many of them were among the more than 380,000 people who left for home during a four-month amnesty ahead of the introduction of tough new penalties for illegal immigrants which came into effect on Aug 1.

Two weeks later, after property developers warned that building sites were grinding to a halt and project delays would cost millions of dollars, the government reversed a ban on the recruitment of Indonesians for the construction sector.

That ban had been imposed in February after two riots by Indonesian workers, but had no visible effect until the mass exodus of illegal immigrants, which was a separate issue affecting all nationalities. — AFP