CNI News

28 May 2024

Myanmar workers legal or undocumented in Malaysia are getting the amount less than basic salary officially designated, those who provide social assistance told CNI News. 

Although basic salary of Malaysia is 1,500 Ringgits (1,300,000 Myanmar Kyats), the workers are not paid at that rate.

Moreover, It is still difficult for the workers to enjoy the job opportunities and jobs are still scarce at present. Factories where wires have to be chosen which Chinese nationals  have opened still didn't need any workers, Ko Thet, chairman of the Lovely Heart Philanthropic Youths Blood Donors Association, told CNI News.

" Basic salary of Malaysia is 1,500 Ringgits. But even officially called workers get 900 or 1,000 Ringgits only. Some overstayers or undocumented workers were employed but they were not paid. When the employers need workers, officially called workers are often employed. So, when our citizens arrive, they can't enjoy job opportunities. In the past, Myanmar workers rarely worked in palm oil farms, but now they can't even get jobs in the farms." he said.

Arrests are being conducted again in many parts of Malaysia at present and officials come to restaurants and shops opened by foreigners and arrest in mufti rather than in uniform, according to those providing social assistance in Malaysia.

A construction site

Due to a lack of job opportunity, brokers in collaboration with the agents in Malaysia found house maid jobs for young women and acted like selling them after taking money from landlords or landladies reportedly. 

Moreover, some people are getting into trouble until they have to sleep on the roadside because they have no food and accommodation. Most Myanmar citizens drink alcohol and some locals complain as they don't accept this behavior reportedly.

" There is a problem that Myanmar workers complained. They told me that they had been in Malaysia for about five months. They were taken to Malaysia after being told that they would get 1,500 Ringgits. They work in a manner one day work and one day off, but they get 900 Ringgits. Although employers and agents told them that they would get 1,500 Ringgits after three months, it didn't make any difference as well after three months. These workers protested without going to work. What I want to tell the workers at present is that they should take care of going or coming and go on working at their present jobs with patience in spite of low-paid salaries." said U Barbu Gyi who is helping in the affairs of Myanmar citizens in Malaysia, told CNI News.

If someone wanted to come and work in Malaysia, he or she should have a close relative or reliable friends who had arrived there. Most of the people who get into trouble came to Malaysia as they trusted what brokers told them reportedly.