KOTA KINABALU (June 27): The Sabah government is to issue a special document for migrant workers in the state plantation sector.

Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal said the document would help solve the shortage of workers in that sector in the state.

“I received many complaints from the plantation sector about the shortage of labour caused by several issues, including federal policies.

“The lack of labour will affect productivity in the plantation sector. So we have held talks to discuss this problem and we will issue a special document to foreign workers to resolve the problem of labour in the plantation sector,” he told reporters after a meeting of the State Security Committee here yesterday.

Mohd Shafie said a special committee chaired by Sabah State Secretary Tan Sri Sukarti Wakiman would work with the Immigration Department on the process of legalising migrant workers before the special document was issued to the eligible workers.

“The special document is not a permanent one and we will impose several conditions for them to work in the plantation sector,” he said, adding that as of the end of 2017, there were 76,603 migrant workers in the plantation sector in Sabah.