RM119bil remitted out

KUALA LUMPUR: A federal lawmaker has told Parliament that foreign workers have remitted a total of RM119bil to their home countries since 2011.

Kuala Langat MP Abdullah Sani Abdul Hamid, who is also Malaysian Trade Union Congress (MTUC) acting president, said he was shocked at how much money immigrant workers were draining from the country.

Abdullah Sani urged the Govern­ment to set up a task force to look into this unmitigated outflow of currency.

The Finance Ministry, in a reply to a question by Nga Kor Ming (DAP – Taiping), said Indonesian workers were the biggest group sending money out of Malaysia, they sent out RM21.2bil in the last five years.

Bangladeshis sent out RM17bil; Nepalese, RM13.2bil; Indians, RM6bil; and Filipinos, RM3bil.

Also, the amount of money sent home by migrant workers has jumped by 23.2% since 2011 and this was increasing every year.

There are about 2.2 million migrant workers in Malaysia but the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons estimated that there may be two million undocumented foreign workers here.

Finance Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said Malaysia aims to see its national debt level take a turn for the better by 2020.

He said, in a written reply, that the Government would continue its austerity measures to keep the deficit capped at 55% to gross domestic product (GDP).

Malaysia was still classified as a nation with manageable debt and measures were in place to control spending, with 2020 set as the year that Malaysia may start seeing its credit improving, he said.