The government will soon introduce a foreign workers bill which proposes confining foreigners to their work premises under constant monitoring to prevent rising crime.

Home Affairs Minister Mohamad Radzi Sheikh Ahmad said the foreign workers bill would provide legislation to oversee Malaysia's 2.6 million foreign workers and ensure they "do not go astray".

Mohamad Radzi said the bill required employers "to provide proper accommodations at the workplace, where it is properly monitored, where they have systems to ensure that the workers do not go astray".

"If they do go out anywhere, there is some sort of a procedure involved," Mohamad Radzi told reporters.

On Saturday, Malaysia's police chief had reportedly suggested confining foreigners to their work premises and putting them under 24-hour surveillance to prevent crime.

Inspector-General of Police Musa Hassan said the move would deter them from getting involved in rising criminal activity, the New Straits Times reported.

"Under the plan, foreign workers, the majority of whom are contract workers, will be placed in their kongsi (workers quarters) at (their) work site and have their activities monitored by the contractor, even after working hours," Musa was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

Asked if the government agreed to the practise of foreign workers having to register with their employers if they wished to go out during breaks or days off, Radzi said it was one of the items recommended in the bill.

"We are agreeable, we feel that it is one of the ways, in fact it is recommended in the bill," said Radzi, adding the bill could be approved by the cabinet as early as March, after which it would move to the nation's parliament.

Not confinement, but better supervision

Radzi said under the foreign workers bill, employers would have to bear full responsibility for their foreign workers, most of whom work on plantations and construction sites.

"I would not say just confining them ... it involves making sure they are better supervised, which will make it easier for law enforcement."

Crimes committed by foreign workers, especially Indonesians, have escalated, with about 5,000 criminal acts committed by foreigners last year, which accounted for about two per cent of the 232,620 cases recorded, Musa has said.

Malaysia is one of the largest importers of foreign labour in Asia. Foreign workers, both legal and illegal, accounted for about 2.6 million of its 10.5 million workforce, officials have said.

They supply a much needed workforce in Malaysia's agricultural, construction, manufacturing and services sectors, but have been widely blamed for crime and social ills.