Regulating Foreign Workers

The 6P amnesty and legalisation programme was introduced in 2011 and was meant to be a pathway for undocumented migrants to obtain valid work permits or be repatriated without penalty. On September 1st, the Malaysia government launched an aggresive, nationwide crackdown targeting 500,000 illegal immigrants in the nation's biggest ever operation to deport unwanted foreigners. There are an estimated 4 million foreign workers currently in Malaysia - about half of which are undocumented - representing about 30% of the total work force in the country. Can we afford to do without them?