KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 10): The number of legally certified foreign workers in Malaysia amounted to 1.85 million as at Sept 30 this year, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs.

In a Parliamentary written reply to Segambut Member of Parliament Lim Lip Eng, the Ministry said these were the workers that hold the foreign worker permit (PLKS) issued by the Malaysia Immigration Department.

Of the 1.85 million workers, 749,266 came from Indonesia, 411,364 from Nepal, followed by Bangladesh (237,991), Myanmar (140,259), India (121,430) and others (194,374).

Lim was asking the Ministry to state the foreign worker policy, its population in Malaysia followed by the respective countries they came from and the charges to employ them.

"Approval to employ temporary foreign workers is based on employees' actual needs determined during their application and evaluated based on their qualifications and capabilities to meet government's rules like prioritising hiring of local citizen. Employment of foreign workers is a temporary measure to fill vacancies and after the employment period, these foreign workers will have to return to their homeland," the Ministry said.

"The government had on Feb 19, 2016 decided to suspend all new foreign workers employment application including those from Bangladesh until the administration is satisfied with the actual industry needs," it added.

Among the charges on employment of foreign workers, the Ministry said factory, construction and services industry are charged with a levy of RM1,850, while the estate and agricultural sectors are charged with a levy of RM640.

For foreign helpers for households, the levy is RM410 each.