Malaysians should stop taunting migrant workers who are in the country seeking better opportunities for their livelihood as it only fuels xenophobia, activists said. Tenaganita executive director Glorene Das told theSun that online disparagement of migrant workers needs to be stopped. “There are social media videos in which (commenters) mocked overcrowding at ‘mini Dhaka’ in Jalan Silang here, as well as inside a mall during last week’s Chinese New Year celebrations.
“There are legal migrant workers in the country. They are not invaders but contribute to our economic development. We seem to forget this.” The International Organisation for Migration said while documented migrant workers constituted 2.2 million of the total 14.4 million employees in the labour force as of 2022, the total number of migrant workers,
regardless of their status, could amount to 5.5 million. (Pic) Xenophobia could be due to personal bias, leading to misunderstandings and a lack of awareness on the legal status of migrants. AMIRUL SYAFIQ THESUN
