The government needs to have a comprehensive manpower policy in place in order to cope with 'overpopulation' of foreign workers, an opposition party said today.

DAP national chairperson Lim Kit Siang said such a policy could address the implications of a huge migrant workforce as well as provide mechanisms to monitor its social, economic, cultural and the legal dimensions.

The veteran politician said the cabinet committee of foreign workers, which oversees the foreign workers issue at present, is not good enough as it only "perpetuates the government's ad hoc approach" in handling the problems.

"It is because the absence of such a comprehensive policy on foreign workers that Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad could be surprised by the presence of illegal immigrants as the workforce for the construction of Cyberjaya," said Lim in a statement.

He added that the government's lack of control in handling the problem was apparent in the contradictory figures given by government leaders of the amount of money which flows out of the country through these foreign workers.

On Monday, National Economic Action Council executive director Mustapha Mohamed estimated that more than RM2 billion flows out of the country annually through these workers.

"This is a very low estimate compared with the RM5 billion a year figure given by the minister for human resources, Dr Fong Chan Onn, last month," Lim said.

He added that Fong's estimation was calculated based on the assumption of a million foreign workers remitting about RM5,000 each year.

Higher cash outflow

The former parliamentary opposition leader added that Fong's figure itself was "a gross underestimation as the government does not deny that the total number of foreign workers, both legal and illegal, are more that two million".

Lim added that the Malaysian Trades Union Congress estimated that there are about three million foreign workers in the country.

He said that even a conservative estimate of a two million foreign workers would result in a total outflow of foreign exchange of more than RM10 billion annually.

"It will be RM15 billion going by MTUC's figure of three million migrant workers.

"These contradictory and confusing figures only reinforce the public perception that the government is not in full control of the problem of foreign workers," said Lim.

Last week, the government decided to reduce the number of Indonesian foreign workers in the country following a series of problems caused by these workers.

The government's decision was prompted by two riots involving Indonesian workers in recent weeks.

Least priority

In the first incident on Jan 17, about 500 Indonesian workers went on a rampage when the police had gone to their hostel to arrest 16 of the workers for drug abuse. In the melee that ensued, the rioters had overturned two police vehicles and other public property.

Three days later, 70 Indonesian construction workers armed with machetes turned against their fellow countrymen at Cyberjaya.

The government then immediately announced a change in foreign workers policy, giving the least priority to workers from Indonesia. The government also said it would reduce the number of those already in the country.

Indonesians make up 566,983 out of a total of 769,566 legal foreign workers in the country.