Foreign workers in Malaysia outnumber the local ethnic Indian community, statistics show.

Deputy Human Resources Minister Ismail Abdul Muttalib today told the Dewan Rakyat that 2.07 million workers hold temporary employment visit passes as at Dec 31 last year.

In contrast, Department of Statistics’ latest published figures on population shows ethnic Indian population as at end of Sep 30, 2014 is 1.98 million.

Given the average quarterly growth for the Indian population the population is estimated to be just under two million by the end of 2014.

The average quarterly growth of the Indian population from quarter three 2013 to quarter three 2014 is 4,000 people.

The figure provided by the human resources ministry also does not take into account illegal or undocumented foreign workers.

Amnesty International in 2010 estimated that there are 2.2 million illegal foreign workers in Malaysia, although the figure is likely to be smaller today due to government crackdowns.

Last month, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Wee Ka Siong  reportedly admitted that the number of foreign workers in Malaysia exceed the ethnic Indian population.

He also raised alarm that it could also overtake the ethnic Chinese population if not controlled, China Press reported.

Official statistics show that the ethnic Chinese population is 6.6 million as at end of September 2013.

Bernama reported that Ismail attributed the large number of foreign workers to dependence by critical sectors.

"The lack of interest and high turnover of local workers in sectors which do not good prospects for them has forced employers in the country to depend on foreign workers," he told the Dewan Rakyat   

The government is trying to cut down the dependency by training locals for the job, the newswire reported.

He was replying to Dr Che Rosli Che Mat (PAS-Hulu Langat).

Most foreign workers are employed in blue collar positions in the agriculture, construction and manufacturing industries.