KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim wants the practice of using agents to recruit foreign workers to be stopped.
This, he said, was due to the higher costs involved in using these agents, which he said was tantamount to "modern slavery".
"For example, for (workers from) Nepal, the cost is only RM3,700. But (workers from) Bangladesh and Indonesia cost between RM20,000 and RM25,000 (to be recruited)," he told reporters after chairing today's cabinet meeting.
In February last year, then human resources minister Datuk Seri M. Saravanan had told those wanting to hire foreign workers to apply directly to his ministry instead of using the services of recruitment agencies.
He had said applications made by recruitment agencies would be immediately rejected.