KUALA LUMPUR • Malaysia has decided to lift a limit on the hiring of foreign workers that was meant to protect jobs for locals in most sectors, said the Human Resources Ministry late on Thursday.

The ministry had said last month that the hiring of foreign labour would be limited to the construction, agriculture and plantation sectors, a move to increase employment opportunities for locals affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

It said that more than 67,000 local workers and over 4,700 foreign workers had lost their jobs as of last month.

"However, there were some employers who claimed to still need a number of foreign workers and urged the government to withdraw the freeze on recruitment of new foreign workers," Human Resources Minister Saravanan Murugan said in a statement on Thursday.

He urged employers to prioritise filling job vacancies with local workers before considering re-employing foreign workers who are still in Malaysia with a valid work permit. The foreign workers, if rehired, must work in the same sectors they were previously employed in.

Datuk Seri Saravanan said that employers should also ensure that the foreign workers to be rehired have been tested for Covid-19, the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus.

Malaysia hosts about 2.1 million documented foreign workers, according to government estimates.

Unemployment rose after the government imposed strict curbs on movement and businesses for most of the second quarter to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

These restrictions have been gradually eased since May, as the number of new infections fell.

REUTERS