No official word on labour freeze

PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia has not received official notification on any move by Myanmar to stop sending its citizens to work here.

Both Home Ministry and Wisma Putra said they have not been informed of the matter.

Deputy Home Minister Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed said that if reports on the move were true, Malaysia would turn to other countries to source for foreign workers.

“We will wait for the Myanmar government to notify us officially on this, but so far there has been none. Let’s wait for the announcement before we think of the next course of action, including finding new source countries to meet our labour needs,” he said.

Media reports in Myanmar claimed that Myanmar’s Immi­gration Ministry said it had stopped issuing new licences for its nationals to work in Malaysia.

At a rally on Saturday, the Prime Minister criticised Myanmar for selectively invoking clauses in the Asean Charter while ignoring agreements on human rights issues.