Minister M Kulasegaran said today he had spoken to people in the plantation industry to bring “maybe 5,000 people” to be stationed there.

This will enable them to get treatment from hospitals and for their children to go to pre-schools and become part and parcel of the community.

“The plan is in the pipeline.”

He said the ministry was looking at various ways to allow the refugees to find jobs.

Kulasegaran, however, said lack of proper documentation among refugees posed a challenge.

He was commenting on a statement by Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah yesterday that the previous government had attempted to help the Rohingya community but that a pilot programme had not taken off.

“Maybe the jobs provided then were not appropriate or the method used.

“So the ministry involved is looking for a way to help them get jobs,” Saifuddin had said.

Kulasegaran said he had in fact raised questions on this unsuccessful pilot project a year ago in Parliament.

Last year, it was reported that Malaysia would allow 300 Rohingya refugees, whose status had been validated by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), to take jobs in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors.

Meanwhile, on another matter, Kulasegaran suggested that the Public Service Department increase the employment of disabled individuals from its current 0.6%-0.8% to a minimum of 1%.

Speaking at the launch of specialjobs.com, an online portal to help individuals with special needs to get jobs, he said there are 3,696 physically-challenged individuals in the civil service.

He said disabled individuals were usually employed as receptionists and clerks, although some were in managerial-level jobs.

Promising that the ministry would do all it could to assist these individuals get employment, he added: “These are the people we really must care for.”