Malaysian labour threatened by immigrant workers

Singapore, Aug 5 (UNI) Malaysian think-tanks are making out a case for separate policies for domestic and immigrant workers, concerned at the fact that the latter is expected to double by by 2010.

The immigrant population is mostly from South Asia and South-East Asia, with Malaysian government showing a marked preferance for workers from India, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

The immigrant workers population is expected to increase by 2.3 mllion to touch five million by 2010 from the curent 2.7 million.

Malaysia's booming construction, services and plantation sectors are heavily dependant on immigrant labour.

As much as 7,00,000 illegal immigrants are employed in the primarily Muslim-dominated country.

The concern was voiced by Dr Mohamed Ariff, Prof Emeritus and Executive Director of the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER).

The head of the Kuala Lampur-based think-tank felt it was important to avoid direct confrontation of jobs between Malaysian and foreign workers.

The employers in the manufacturing sector prefer immigrants for reasons that they normally pay lower wages to them.

''If they can, they will opt for a 100 per cent foreign workforce,'' a Malaysian news agency quoted Dr Ariff while addressing a seminar.

UNI