KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 22 — Employers are advised to speed up on their end in the recruitment of foreign workers as there are still delays by employers even though approvals have been given by the government.

Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri M. Saravanan said the matter was the responsibility of employers as the government only played a role in resolving and giving permission to a quota of 400,000 to employers.

"This seems to give the impression that there is a problem at the ministry level but there is no longer any issue at the ministry. At the ministry level, we only (implement) until the completion of the MoU (memorandum of understanding) between the source countries and the granting of quotas or approvals.

"So far, we cannot decide which country we need to recruit because we have approximately 14 source countries. Many people are aware of this matter, the Human Resources Ministry only gives special approval and employers have to decide,” he said at a press conference after attending the Meet the Customer Day programme at Menara Manickavasagam, here today.

He said that workers from Bangladesh and Indonesia are often chosen by employers due to language, religion and culture, however, he called on employers to also hire workers from other countries.

"Don’t just depend on one country because when we depend on one country, many conditions are set when we discuss MoUs and so on,” he said who also revealed that workers from Sri Lanka had served in the maid sector before.

Yesterday, Saravanan said the government had approved the official application of the Sri Lankan government to supply labour and applied for a quota of 10,000 workers following the economic crisis that is currently affecting the country.

Meanwhile, commenting on the issue of insufficient workers at restaurants, Saravanan said the issue is expected to be resolved next week.

"Previously, some parties disputed whether we limited only 25 agencies but now we have increased them. The Cabinet has decided to increase up to 100 agencies (from Bangladesh) and as of today we have approved 75 agencies,” he said.

He said that so far, the total number of agencies involved in the entry of 10,000 Sri Lankan workers has not yet been approved by the government and the list of agencies must be registered with the source country. — Bernama