Labour shortage forces climbdown

By Jill McGivering
BBC Asia analyst

Migrant workers are important to Malaysia's construction industry

The Malaysian government's decision to reverse tough new immigration rules on migrant workers will again make it possible for foreigners to enter the country on tourist visas and then look for work.

A crackdown on illegal workers over the last few months damaged relations with Indonesia - the country where the majority of them had come from - and prompted a labour shortage.

Malaysia had tried to crack down on its

vast numbers of undocumented migrant workers in the past, but its heavy-handed efforts to expel them en masse caused chaos.

So this time, the government tried a new approach. First an amnesty - workers who came forward and signed up still had to leave the country, but were told they had priority to return. About 400,000 workers did so.

When that amnesty expired on 1 March, any remaining undocumented workers found by police were prosecuted and punished with prison sentences or whipping.

Some said they simply could not afford to leave because their employers took advantage of the situation by withholding wages.

The move was prompted in part by public hostility towards migrant workers. Many Malaysians blame them for a recent rise in crime, although groups representing the workers say that is ill-founded.

Lack of interest

But the government's crackdown soon ran into problems when plans to replace the Indonesians with workers from other countries, like Pakistan, failed to attract the necessary numbers.

In the meantime, workers who had gone back to Indonesia found themselves mired in a complicated, unwieldy and more expensive new system of processing applications to return.

Malaysian businesses, which survive by employing Indonesians at low cost, suffered an acute labour shortage.

Sensitive seasonal industries like palm oil production are said to have suffered big losses.

Now the system is back to normal, although it may take time for the government's embarrassment to subside - and damaged relations with Indonesia to heal.