ISLAMABAD, July 18: Malaysia said on Monday it was confident that Pakistani workers who began arriving at the weekend to plug a critical labour shortage do not pose a security threat. Home Affairs Ministry Secretary-General Aseh Che Mat said Pakistani authorities had carefully screened the workers to ensure they were not involved in any suspect activities. “We have been assured that elements that might create instability in this country would not be brought in,” Mr Aseh was quoted as saying by the official Bernama news agency.

The first batch of 40 Pakistani workers arrived on Saturday at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

Malaysia is one of the largest importers of foreign labour in Asia. Foreign workers, both legal and illegal, number about 2.6 million of its 10.5 million workforce.

The labour shortage has been caused by the departure of nearly 400,000 immigrants, mostly from Indonesia but also from the Philippines, Myanmar, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka, in a three-month amnesty which ended in March.

The acute labour crunch prompted the government to fast-track the recruitment of some 100,000 Pakistanis amid fears it would aggravate a slowdown in economic growth this year.

The government has also been looking for workers from India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Myanmar and Vietnam.

About 1,000 Pakistani workers, the first batch of an intake of 100,000, are expected to arrive in Malaysia by mid-2005.

Meanwhile the Malaysian government will give 50 per cent quota to Pakistan for import of manpower from its source countries.

According to Pakistani officials, after including Pakistan in the list of manpower source countries, Malaysia has given a target of 100,000 workers to Pakistan.

Malaysia started formal import of Pakistani manpower this week when first batch of over 400 workers left for Malaysia.

Sources said Malaysia had expressed satisfaction over the performance of Pakistani workers and pledged to provide them all basic facilities during their stay in Malaysia.

Both countries have already exchanged high level delegations to discuss modalities regarding export of Pakistani manpower to Malaysia.

It was also decided that in case of early completion of one project, Pakistani a worker would have option to engage himself in another project.

Both the countries also agreed to minimize involvement of middleman in the export of manpower to check exploitation of workers.

It may be mentioned that Malaysia has recently adjusted 1100 Pakistani workers and granted them legal stay, out of 2800 illegal workers.

The demand is a part of Malaysia’s overall requirement of 100,000 workers in various sectors, official sources said.

It was learnt that a National Identity Card for Overseas Pakistani (NICOP) will be issued to each Pakistani emigrant to double check security clearance.

Earlier, during an official visit to Pakistan, a high level Malaysian delegation of its Home Affairs Ministry/Immigration Department had expressed its satisfaction over screening mechanism devised by the Ministry of Interior and transparent handling of the recruitment of workers by the Ministry of Labour Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis.

An annual outflow of Pakistani workforce to the international market range from 150,000 to 200,000 in 28 different categories.—AFP