Malaysia will speed up the recruitment of 100,000 male Pakistanis amid an acute labour shortage caused by a crackdown that sent hundreds of thousands of illegal workers fleeing the country, reports said Saturday.

The Pakistanis will be exempt from taking the induction courses which are compulsory for other foreign workers, Home Affairs Minister Azmi Khalid was quoted as saying by the Star newspaper.

"We need the workers urgently. So to speed up the process we will exempt them from taking the course," he said.

When asked how urgently the workers were required, Azmi said: "We want them to come as soon as yesterday."

Screening mechanism

The government has the mechanism to screen the workers from Pakistan to ensure that none will pose any threat to the country's security, Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times .

He did not elaborate.

The labour shortage follows an exodus during a three-month amnesty which ended on March 1 of nearly 400,000 illegal immigrants, mostly from Indonesia but also from the Philippines, Myanmar, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka.

The government's decision to hire workers from Pakistan came amid fears that the labour shortage could further aggravate a slowdown in economic growth this year.