KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 20): Putrajaya's freeze on the intake of foreign workers including the 1.5 million from Bangladesh has been met with scepticism by a Bangladesh official, the Dhaka Tribune reported.

It quoted the acting secretary of Bangladesh Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministry, Begum Shamsun Nahar, as saying she believed the Malaysian government would still take in workers from Bangladesh as agreed in a memorandum of understanding signed two days ago, and one day just before Putrajaya announced it was suspending recruitment of foreign workers from all source countries.

“The Malaysian government has made the announcement to calm local pressure groups who are opposed to recruiting foreign workers," Begum Shamsun was quoted as saying.

The Dhaka Tribune also said she had called Putrajaya's announcement an "eyewash".

The report said that Bangladesh had yet to receive any official statement on the freeze from Putrajaya.

Yesterday, Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi announced that Putrajaya was putting on hold recruitment of foreign workers from all source countries, including Bangladesh.

This came a day after the Malaysian and Bangladesh governments signed an memorandum of understanding to bring in 1.5 million workers from the South Asian country over the next three years.

Deputy Home Minister Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed said the suspension was done so that Putrajaya could evaluate the current pool of foreign labour in the country.

He said the agreement signed with Dhaka expired in three years' time and Malaysia did not need to implement it immediately.

Local groups have criticised the plan to bring in more foreign workers when a large number in the country are undocumented, while employers are concerned about the impact of the freeze on their businesses.

Malaysian Trades Union Congress secretary-general N. Gopal Kishnam had welcomed the move to put on hold the intake of foreign workers, but still wants a royal commission of inquiry into foreign labour needs in the country.

Malaysian Employers Federation Datuk Shamsuddin Bardan, however, said he hoped that freeze would not affect the ongoing intake of foreign workers.