PETALING JAYA: Former Klang MP Charles Santiago has welcomed the government’s move to restructure the foreign worker management system and place the one-stop centre (OSC) under the human resources ministry, calling it a long-overdue reform.
Santiago said the existing system had failed both migrant workers and employers for years, making the overhaul necessary.
However, he stressed that meaningful reforms could not be developed behind closed doors.
“Everyone needs to be brought to the table – employers, trade unions, migrant worker organisations, recruitment agents, civil society organisations, and source-country governments.
“A system that is to govern millions of workers needs to be built collectively and not by a chosen few,” he said in a statement.
The government had announced that the country’s foreign worker management system would be restructured to make it more coordinated, efficient, and aligned with industry needs.
As part of the structural revamp, the membership and official terms of reference governing foreign worker oversight would be redefined.
Santiago asked whether the government’s decision to overhaul the foreign worker management system meant the Universal Recruitment Advanced Platform, also known as Turap, had been dropped.
He also called for the new system to prioritise ethical recruitment, pointing to the Employer Pays Principle under Malaysia’s National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights.
“The government must publish clear standards, prioritise ethical recruitment, and blacklist those who exploit workers. This must be the way forward,” he said.
He urged Putrajaya to ensure the new system was affordable, transparent, and accountable, arguing that the current model had been dominated by a single private vendor for too long.
“Malaysia’s migrant workers have waited decades for a system that serves them, not one that profits from them,” he said.
