Allow Rohingya to work on plantations, says deputy minister

(FMT) – Deputy Federal Territories Minister Edmund Santhara has proposed that Rohingya refugees be allowed to work in the plantation sector, a move which he said would benefit them as well as locals.

Speaking to FMT, he said plantation companies at the moment hire foreign workers from Indonesia and Bangladesh.

He said hiring Rohingya instead would only incur transportation costs to the plantations.

If they could be placed at plantations, he added, locals could take over their jobs at the Selayang market and nearby night market.

The United Nations’ refugee agency UNHCR has said there are 175,000 refugees in Malaysia, half of them Rohingya.

An estimated 15,000 live in the Selayang market area alone.

Santhara said the Rohingya could work on plantations which offer free housing as well as discounted water and electricity while waiting for the UN to place them in other countries.

He suggested that a test project be carried out by sending the 15,000 Rohingya in Selayang to work on plantations.

He said this would also help address the shortage of workers in the sector.

Rohingya children meanwhile could be sent to public schools, he added.

“There is hardly any additional cost involved in them working in the plantation sector.

“The government will also be able to manage them better.”

There, he said, the Rohingya could earn anywhere between RM900 and RM1,800, with higher salaries during good harvests.

“With the Covid-19 pandemic and countries becoming more nationalistic, there is a need to look at the Rohingya who are in the country,” he said, adding that Malaysia could be a model country in uplifting the social status of the community.