Sabah to rely on Filipinos, Indonesians

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah has no plans to change its policy on Indonesian and Filipino workers for its plantation and agriculture sectors and there is no necessity to look elsewhere, says state Agricul­ture and Food Industries Minister Datuk Junz Wong.

He said that despite the labour shortage, the state would not be taking workers from other countries but to legalise Indonesian and Filipino workers to meet the needs of the plantation sector.

He said he was unaware of any plans to bring in African workers to overcome the nation’s worker shortage in the plantation and agriculture sectors.

He was asked to respond to the possibility of recruiting African workers to work in plantations.

Wong said currently, steps were being taken to legalise the illegal foreign workers existing within the plantations.

A five-month regularisation plan that began on April 1 aims to get workers, whose families are already in Sabah, to obtain necessary work passes and dependents’ passes.

“This process will ease the shortage, though it is slow,” said Wong.