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He said the illegal workers are brought in by agencies after receiving a request from employers.
“That is just one way illegal workers are coming into the country. Employers are working hand in hand with agencies,” he said in answer to a question from Nasrudin Hassan Tantawi (Temerloh-PAS).
The minister also said some of these illegals worked in restaurants and supermarkets among other businesses.
He added that at present, there are 1.9 million documented foreign workers in the country.
Nasruddin had asked of the measures taken by the government to stop the influx of illegal immigrants in the country.
Riot said the government will continue to give priority to locals to work in various fields.
Towards that end, he said the government has implemented various training programmes to upscale the skill of Malaysian workers, with the aim of achieving 35 per cent of local skilled workers by 2035.
He concluded the country does not want foreign workers to take over jobs that could be filled by local workers.
The recruitment of foreign workers is only open to five sectors which are less attractive to local workers, namely construction, agriculture, forestry, manufacturing and services.
The numbers given by the minister contradicted that of the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC).
In an interview in May this year, MTUC Secretary-General Gopal Kishnam told FMT that there are only 2.1 million documented workers as opposed to the four to five million undocumented ones.
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