KINIBIZ The government has started preliminary discussions on allowing roughly several hundred thousand foreign labourers to stay beyond the expiry of their current employment under the 6P whitening programme.

Sources told KINIBIZ that the discussion may aim to retain foreign workers under a new form though a lot of details have yet to be finalised. However, it will likely involve fees for each foreign worker whose permit is renewed, said sources.

This development follows a one-year extension granted by the Home Ministry in end-2014 to foreign labourers who were originally due to depart Malaysia by Jan 5, 2015.

However, the Home Ministry extension was only granted to 352,493 foreign workers, reported Bernama . In contrast there were about 503,000 foreign workers slated to leave by Jan 5, 2015.

When announcing the extension last year, secretary-general of the Home Ministry Alwi Ibrahim said businesses should plan for the departure of these foreign workers and that “there will be no more extension”.

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