Hamzah: Seven-day quarantine for arriving foreign workers, cost must be borne by employers

PUTRAJAYA: All new foreign workers arriving in Malaysia must undergo a seven-day isolation period at selected quarantine centres, says Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainuddin.

The Home Minister also said that the cost for the mandatory quarantine of new foreign workers must be borne by the employers bringing them in.

"The special committee of pandemic management chaired by the Prime Minister had recently allowed foreign workers to enter the country, starting with the plantation sector.

"The foreign workers can only enter the country via the Kuala Lumpur International Airport and KLIA2. They will also be allowed to enter Sabah and Sarawak through entry points that will be decided later,” he added.

On the length of the quarantine period, Hamzah said that this was set by the Health Ministry.

"Employers are responsible to bear the cost for the quarantine stay, asides from other costs to bring the workers into the country," said Hamzah, at a press conference after a joint meeting with Human Resources Datuk Seri M. Saravanan here.

Previously, Saravanan had said that 32,000 foreign workers in the plantation sector will be brought into the country in phases beginning early November.

The country had stopped accepting foreign workers following the entry ban enforced throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.