Speaking to FMT, Wee commended Bestinet Sdn Bhd for setting the record straight on its role in the recruitment process and for revealing how much it charged recruitment agencies for the health screening of each foreign worker in the source countries.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Bestinet provided a detailed explanation on its role in the recruitment process, noting that it was only one of four service providers involved with labour source countries.
In source countries, Bestinet said, there were four processes which workers intending to come to Malaysia needed to go through: biometric checking, health screening, receiving and handling of a worker’s passport for calling visa (OSC), and system and data entry for calling visa (VLN).
“We are only one of four service providers. We only handle the health screening for which the home ministry allows us to collect RM100,” said Bestinet CEO Ismail Mohd Noor.
He added that the fee was not paid in cash or collected from the foreign workers but from recruitment agents who must bank in the money.
Wee said while Bestinet’s role and fees were now public, questions remained over those of the other three service providers.
It is understood that the service provider for the biometric checking is S5 Sdn Bhd, and for the VLN it is Ultra Kirana Sdn Bhd. As for the OSC, the service provider differs according to the source country.
“Since questions have been asked following the Nepali government’s decision to stop sending workers here due to restrictive immigration requirements, I feel it is in the best interests of the public that all details are laid on the table.
“All stakeholders have a right to know how we arrived at this problem.”
Meanwhile, a source in the security industry said unscrupulous agents were passing the cost of the various requirements back to the workers.
“This is the nonsense which the Nepali government wants to stop. This also affects Malaysian security companies because they are increasing their salary demands to cover these costs.
“This is why the salary demands of Nepali guards are very high, about RM2,000 on average, and this doesn’t include accommodation and other benefits.”
The problem for Malaysian security companies, said the source, was that many of their clients wanted Nepali guards as locals had discipline issues.
“All these requirements are tolls which enrich a select few at the expense of businesses and foreign workers.”
Meanwhile, a Nepali recruitment agent who only wanted to be known as Ram said they were informed by Nepali authorities that the crackdown was due to the multiple fees workers were asked to fork out in Malaysia.
He said the freeze had affected his business badly, as he would get at least 500 requests per month for staff. He hoped it would be settled by the end of this week.