The government will officially absorb the remaining Burmese Rohingya Muslims here into the nation's workforce, said Home Minister Azmi Khalid.

"We think they should be absorbed into the labour force. We have to find ways to organise them because it will be a waste if they are here and we don't recognise them or we don't give them the opportunity.

"Like it or not, they are here so it's better if we give them jobs rather than not and we have foreign workers anyway, so why can't we make them foreign workers too?" he told reporters at the Parliament lobby yesterday

Last year the government agreed to issue the Rohingya with identification cards. The Rohingyas, who hail from Burma's Arakan state, fear persecution by the military leadership if they returned to their homeland.

Education for children

Azmi said his ministry planned to train Rohingya women as domestic helpers to cut down the hiring of more new foreign workers and provide the community's children with education.

"Their children lack education, even if they wanted to send them to third countries, nobody wants them. If they receive primary education, know how to read and write, at least they can be useful," he said.

He added that the government has agreed to the idea but have to work out the implementation details such as to issue them with the identification cards.

Asked on the time frame, he replied: "That can be done quickly because they are already here".

The Rohingya community has cried foul that the police and immigration authorities were still arresting and detaining them despite the government having recognised them.

Last December, Azmi was quoted as saying that no final decision and new policy have been made to recognise Rohingya as a new group of refugees.

His statement then however contradicted with Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz who announced the new policy.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has estimated that there are about 10,000 Rohingyas in Malaysia.