The Myanmar government has not given a deadline for sending workers to Malaysia although the worker ban has been lifted for more than 6 months, according to officials of the Ministry of Labour and Foreign Affairs.
“We have been waiting for a comment from the foreign affairs ministry. Whether or not the workers should be sent depends on the Myanmar ambassador’s comment,” Labour Ministry permanent secretary U Myo Aung told The Myanmar Times on June 20.
He also said that they had not got any reply from the Myanmar ambassador in Malaysia although the labour ministry has asked for a final recommendation from the Myanmar Embassy via the Myanmar Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“We have to scrutinize this as there are a lot of Myanmar workers who have overstayed. We will reply to the labour ministry again when we finish our projects. There are also a lot of cases by agents. We also want to decrease these cheating cases”, a Myanmar embassy official based in Malaysia told The Myanmar Times on June 20.
“We will reopen the worker ban soon”.
But, he could not confirm the due date for sending workers to Malaysia when The Myanmar Times asked him.
A Myanmar embassy official also said that they are careful in carrying out their tasks in relation to Myanmar workers because any religious or racial news from Myanmar can affect Myanmar migrants in Malaysia.
“An overseas agency told me that workers will be allowed to go next week. But, we don’t know the exact date till now, said Min Ko, who was eager to work in Malaysia as he spoke to The Myanmar Times on June 21.
According to him, he had been waiting for more than 5 months to go and work in Malaysia. He had incurred heavy expenses to apply for visa, work permit and medical examination, and had to borrow money to finance his trip.
According to officials from the Myanmar Overseas Employment Agencies Federation (MOEAF), there are more than 10,000 Myanmar workers who have been issued a calling visa from employers from Malaysia and a lot of workers who have got a calling visa went to Malaysia illegally by using the visit visa.
And MOEAF has also requested on May 31 that Myanmar government officials allow their 8,000 workers who have already been issued the calling visa to go to Malaysia immediately.
Union minister U Thein Swe from the Ministry of Labour, Immigration and Population told the media in early June that they had to extend the worker’s calling visa because of the request of the Foreign Affairs Ministry not to send workers at the moment.
Source: The Myanmar Times
