Charles Santiago
Radzi Jidin, an MP from Bersatu, wants soldiers deployed to arrest undocumented migrants and clear immigration depots through mass deportations.
But before we send in the army, we should ask a simple question. How does Malaysia produce irregular migration in the first place?
Let’s start with recruitment. The law caps placement fees at one month’s basic wage, or RM1,700 for a worker on that salary.
Yet reports and studies have found Bangladeshi workers routinely paying RM20,000 or more. That is at least 12 times the legal limit. Many end up overstaying to recoup what they paid.
The 2026 US Trafficking in Persons Report found that no employment agency in Malaysia was prosecuted under the Private Employment Agencies Act between April 2025 and March 2026. More troubling, it names official complicity as a significant concern.
The report does credit Malaysia with prosecuting some public officials and keeping its Tier 2 ranking. But it says the country still falls short of minimum standards.
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Radzi himself has alleged that some civil servants help traffickers.
Who should be targeted
So why send soldiers after the workers? Why not go after those who profit from this system and keep it going?
Immigration authorities say they have acted against 1,720 employers and premises owners since January. That is welcome.
But such action does not reach the recruitment agencies behind the fees – the agents who charge crippling fees, employers who exploit undocumented labour, and officials who allegedly enable trafficking.
Deploy the army? Then deploy it against any employer, including government-linked companies (GLCs), found to knowingly hire undocumented workers. Deploy it against the cartels that manufacture debt bondage. And deploy it against any corrupt officials who make it possible.
If we are serious about reducing irregular migration, we must dismantle the lucrative recruitment fee system. It generates huge profits at the expense of migrant workers and keeps the cycle of debt bondage going.
We should enforce a mandatory ’employer pays’ principle. We should also sign binding bilateral labour agreements with labour-sending countries.
A Malaysia-Bangladesh agreement already exists, but it expires in December. The next one must be binding and enforced.
MPs like Radzi need to understand the issues they speak about instead of playing to the gallery.
Migrant workers are not the root cause of this crisis. Greed, corruption, exploitative recruitment and unscrupulous employers are.
Yet we keep blaming the workers while those who profit from exploitation too often escape accountability.
Malaysia has repeatedly faced international scrutiny and embarrassment over its poor management of labour migration. We simply cannot deport our way out of a system we have failed to govern.
So stop scapegoating migrant workers. Start holding the powerful to account.
Charles Santiago is a prominent Malaysian politician, economist and human rights advocate who served three terms as the MP for Klang and has twice chaired the National Water Services Commission.
The views expressed in Aliran's media statements and the NGO statements we have endorsed reflect Aliran's official stand. Views and opinions expressed in other pieces published here do not necessarily reflect Aliran's official position.
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