Deputy Finance Minister Johari Abdul Ghani revealed in the Parliament on March 16 that overseas remittances by foreign workers in Malaysia has increased from RM15.704 billion in 2011 to RM34.753 billion in 2015.
Overseas remittances by foreign workers was only RM10 billion in 2009. In other words, overseas remittances by foreign workers has increased by 3.5 times in merely 6 years!
Our per capita income was RM36,285 in 2015. If these overseas remittances were earned by Malaysians, it would increase our per capita income to RM37,406, a raise of RM1,121, which would bring a far reaching positive effect to our local economy.
According to the information from Home Ministry, there were 2.08 million legal foreign workers in in Malaysia as at January 31, 2016. In order words, each of foreign worker had remitted to their country a sum of RM16,683 per year or RM1,416 per month in 2015. This figure is a bit too high to be real, which means the illegal foreign workers might be 100% to 150% more than the legal foreign workers recorded in our country.
In addition to causing cash outflow, foreign workers also become a burden to our healthcare system.
The Ministry of Health has enforced the Hospitalisation and Surgical Scheme for Foreign Workers effective January 1, 2011, a mandatory medical coverage for all foreign workers with a premium of RM120 and a total coverage of RM10,000. For the foreign workers who have failed to pay for their medical fees, they are prohibited from renewing their working permits, and their employers will be blacklisted to employ new foreign workers. However in 2015 alone, the unpaid bill by the foreign workers in government hospitals and clinics was RM32.9 million, constituting 75% of the total unpaid bill of RM43.8 million.
If BN government has no good solution to solve the current problems caused by the illegal foreign workers, they should refrain from importing a huge number of migrant workers. Instead, UNHCR and many of us have repeatedly urged the Government to allow refugees with legal documents to work in Malaysia. However until today, BN government has failed to respond to our request. Is it because granting refugees the right to work does not bring huge profit to the cronies and agents?