To relieve the burden on employers, the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) has urged the government to waive the registration fee for undocumented migrant workers as part of their rehiring and relocation programme.

​A ​resolution ​on this ​was passed yesterday afternoon, at a meeting attended by 18 chambers of commerce in Kuala Lumpur, MEF executive director Shamsuddin Bardan said.

Shamsuddin said the exorbitant registration fee and penalty imposed under the programme were unbearable for employers.

“If you look at the cost, it’s very prohibitive. Employers have to pay a fee of RM800, upfront, for each undocumented employee, without knowing whether they will be even be given work permits,” he told Malaysiakini when contacted.

On top of that, the employer would have to pay a penalty of RM500 for each undocumented migrant worker he has employed while the worker himself will have to fork out an additional RM300 as penalty, Shamsuddin ( photo ) revealed.

While the programme is to legalise the undocumented workers of the employers, he said there were some unintended consequences attached to it.

For example, he said many migrant workers in the plantation sector had absconded in order to be enrolled under the programme.

“The fact is that people don’t like to work in the plantations. They abscond, which in turn leaves them undocumented, so that they can be enrolled into the rehiring programme and then work in the towns.”

Shamsudin said the programme has received lukewarm response, with 1,000 employers having registered only 8,100 undocumented workers as at last week.

“To expect the employers of illegal foreign workers to come forward and register them is admitting that you employed them illegally. It will have a lot of legal ramifications.

“That’s why most of the employers are not keen to register,” he said.

He pointed out that the government did not charge a registration fee in the past, under the 6P worker legalisation programme.

“To me, the government should provide the registration services for free, since many illegal (workers) can then be detected and managed better.”

No discussion on migrant workers freeze

Shamsudin said the MEF will be submitting a memorandum on this to the secretary-general of Home Ministry by March 1.

The rehiring and relocation programme for undocumented foreign workers was announced by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak as part of the 2106 Budget recalibration.

On a related matter, Shamsuddin said the meeting did not discuss the government's move to temporarily freeze the intake of all migrant workers.

“No. It’s left to the government to decide on the issue,” he said.

Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi announced last Friday that the intake of all foreign labour would be put on hold with immediate effect.

This came a day after Putrajaya signed a memorandum of understanding with Bangladesh for the intake of Bangladeshi workers.

In response, Bangladeshi Expatriate Ministry acting secretary Begum Shamsunnahar described the Malaysian government’s announcement as "an eyewash" and insisted that its citizens would continue with their plans to work in Malaysia.​