Home Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin at Parliament in Kuala Lumpur October 24, 2018. — Picture by Azneal Ishak

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 24 — The Home Ministry’s outsourcing of foreign worker recruitment will be discontinued gradually and placed under the Human Resources Ministry as early as next year, said Home Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

He said the existing outsourcing companies will be given a grace period to seek employment for their foreign workers during the transition process.

“Following our discussion today, foreign worker intake will be managed by the Human Resources Ministry’s Private Employment Agency from next year onwards.

“The existing Private Employment Agencies (Amendment) Act 2017 stipulated under the agency will allow better organisation and adherence to the rule of law,” he said in Parliament after chairing the Foreign Workers Management Special Committee meeting which was also attended by Human Resources Minister M. Kulasegaran.

According to Immigration Department data, there are 1,892,247 registered foreign workers in the country as of September 30.

The majority are from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal and India.

Muhyiddin said there are at least 100 companies involved in the outsourcing system and negotiations with them to finalise the transition will be decided at a later date.

He said the transfer of responsibilities was decided to avoid any possible untoward incidents such as human trafficking and also alleged abuse meted by authorities against the foreign workers.