KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 21): The Cabinet has agreed to the recruitment of 10,000 workers from Sri Lanka after taking into account the state of the country which is hit by the current economic crisis, said Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri M Saravanan.

In a statement here on Wednesday (Sept 21), he said the Sri Lankan government had submitted an official application to supply manpower involving a quota of 10,000 workers.

The Cabinet, at its meeting on Sept 14, agreed on the hiring of the foreign workers to help Sri Lanka, which is facing the worst economic crisis, he said and urged the Malaysian industries and employers to support the government’s good intention by employing workers from Sri Lanka to fill job vacancies in sectors that are allowed to hire foreign workers.

According to Saravanan, employers who have been given quota approval and have settled the levy payment should seize the opportunity.

As of Sept 14, levy payments had been made for 416,634 applications for foreign workers, he said, adding that employers keen to hire foreign workers can contact the ministry’s Migrant Worker Management Division ([email protected]) or the Peninsular Malaysia Labour Department ([email protected]) for more information.