The Human Resources Ministry has been urged to announce actual statistics on foreign workers and their country of origin and not the estimated figure.      

Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) president Mohd Khalid Atan said it received information that there are about two million foreign workers with valid documents.     

"This number exceeds the number required by employers in Malaysia. It does not include those working illegally," he said after meeting chairman of Nepal Federation of Trade Unions (GEFONT) Gamesh Bahadul Gautam, here today.     

He said the government needs to prioritise Malaysians like school leavers, university graduates, the unemployed, retrenched and poor before deciding to hire foreigners.     

Khalid asked the government to act firmly on the issue of foreign workers as it had made a decision to reduce foreign workers in Malaysia.      

Authorities should also step up enforcement to check illegal immigrants as they seized jobs meant for locals.     

The foreign worker issue rose recently when Human Resources Minister S Subramaniam said the government had approved the recruitment of 45,000 foreign workers from India to meet demand by 13 sectors.     

However, various groups protested the decision including MTUC which asked that local workers be given priority.     

- Bernama