KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 4 — Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri M. Saravanan has given an assurance that employment opportunities for local citizens will not be affected by the influx of approximately 2.1 million foreign workers in the near future.

He said he would ensure that all applications from the industries to bring in more foreign workers after this would be studied in depth.

"Everyone is asking (for foreign workers), if I approve all their requests, locals may not have jobs in our country.

"I don’t want KL (Kuala Lumpur) to become a dumping ground,” he said during the oral question and answer session at the Dewan Rakyat here today.

He was responding to a supplementary question by Datuk Seri Mohd Salim Sharif (Umno-Jempol), who wanted to know if the government could guarantee employment opportunities for Malaysians once the foreign workers are brought in.

Saravanan said a total of 2,127,722 foreign workers are expected to be working in various sectors in the country in one or two months.

This includes the 1,244,400 foreign workers who are in the country; 238,943 with approved eVDR (electronic Visa with Reference) and 644,379 undergoing a biometric and medical examination in the source countries.

"This is a huge number. We have never been in this position. Before Covid-19, the number of total foreign workers was 1.8 million, soon over 300,000 people will be added to the list.

"So, after all these applications, as a minister, I’ll need to study in depth whether it is necessary or not (to approve new applications for foreign workers),” he said. — Bernama