Malaysia to review migrant labour deals

Malaysia will review bilateral agreements with 15 nations from which it sources laborers in a bid to address exploitative practices and manpower imbalances that have left thousands of migrant workers stranded without jobs, officials said.

Since last year, thousands of migrants, mainly from Bangladesh and Nepal, have been left in limbo after arriving in Malaysia, where they were told that jobs promised to them in exchange for steep recruitment fees were no longer available.

The plight of the migrants coincided with concerns over workplace abuses in Malaysia, with several companies facing U.S. bans over the use of forced labor in recent years. Many laborers said they had not been paid any wages.

The labor and home affairs ministers said the distribution of laborers was uneven across the economy, prompting a need to review the bilateral agreements.

They said Malaysia still had a shortage of workers in the agriculture and plantations sector, while quotas have been exceeded in other industries.