The government of Malaysia has decided to terminate the services of Malaysian visa application agencies involved in handling visas for Bangladeshi migrant workers.

Home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said applications for the eVisa can now be made directly through the immigration department’s MyVisa portal.

“The government has given active IDs and user manuals to employers regarding the hiring of Bangladeshi migrant workers,” he said at a press conference on Friday.

Saifuddin defended the government’s decision to nullify migrant worker quotas that remain unused after March 31. Employers also have until May 31 to bring these migrant workers into Malaysia under the quotas once visas are granted.

He said this decision was jointly made by his ministry and the human resources ministry, taking into account the “elements of public peace and security”.

The ministries had also considered the current and projected need for manpower in each sector.

“This decision enables the government to evaluate the effectiveness of initiatives that have been implemented and accurately measure the need for foreign manpower in the country, before considering the need to open new quotas for the intake of foreign workers,” he said.

Last week, Saifuddin said active foreign worker quotas would be voided if calling visas, also known as visas with reference, were not issued by March 31.

He also said that from June 1, Putrajaya would not allow foreign workers into the country under these active quotas. Employers who paid the levy for scrapped quotas will be refunded.

The Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) and the Malaysian International Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MICCI) criticised this decision, saying it was sudden and left businesses in limbo.

FMM said this would affect some firms that had planned their migrant worker intake in stages according to their project schedule, while MICCI warned that employers would struggle to fulfil contractual obligations and meet deadlines, resulting in financial losses and operational setbacks.

Today, Saifuddin said employers have paid the levies for 412,011 migrant worker quotas, of which only 58.1% (239,305 quotas) have been granted calling visas.

He said employers who truly needed foreign workers would be able to expedite bringing in the labourers needed for their operations.

“The short deadline to bring these workers (before June 1) is also in line with the government’s hopes of expediting the process of taking in migrant workers to meet the desperate needs of industries.

“It is hoped that this decision would also curb the exploitation of migrant workers, as reported widely recently,” he said, referring to cases of migrant workers being duped into coming to Malaysia only to find no jobs waiting for them here.

Saifuddin said the move to allow direct eVisa applications for Bangladeshi workers would assist employers in using up their quotas, with the applications to be processed in one to two working days.