The Ministry of Labor, Immigration and Population has announced that Myanmar will stop sending workers to Malaysia indefinitely due to the tensions between the two countries’ governments over the Rohingya crisis.
On December 4, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak led a rally of around 5,000 people calling for an end to the ‘genocide’ against the Rohingya in Rakhine State. He also personally attacked Aung San Suu Kyi for her complicity in human rights abuses against the Rohingya.
He also called on Indonesian president Joko Widodo to hold a similar rally in Jakarta.
President’s Office spokesperson Zaw Htay criticized the Malaysian prime minister, saying his actions could exacerbate the violence in Myanmar and destabilize the Asean region.
Other critis have accused Prime Minister Najib of seeking to improve his political reputation ahead of a Malaysian election. The rally was organized by his political party, Umno.
Myanmar embassies in Malaysia and Indonesia have instructed their staff to be on alert for security risks and avoid unnecessary travel outside their compounds.
Myanmar’s Ministry of Labor, Immigration and Population stopped accepting demand letters from Malaysia to provide new laborers on December 6.
U Thein Win, the director of the Labor Instruction Department told The Voice: “This is for an undetermined amount of time. We stopped [sending laborers] because we are protecting our people from the situation happening over there. This was not initiated by Malaysia. We are the ones not sending [workers] to Malaysia.”
However, employment agencies are still allowed to send Myanmar workers to Malaysia if they have already received job offers and the approval of the Education, Health and Human Resource Development Committee and the Naypyidaw Labor Department. If these workers face problems in Malaysia, the agencies will be required to repatriate them at their own expense, or else lose their licenses.
According to the ministry’s records, there are 190,000 legal migrant workers from Myanmar in Malaysia as of October 2016. According to recruiting agencies, there are, in fact, between 500,000 and 700,000 Myanmar laborers in Malaysia.
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