Crackdown on Illegal Immigrants Strains Malaysian Finances Malaysia—A drive to arrest and deport illegal immigrants is straining Malaysia’s finances at a time when the government is trying to cut spending to narrow its budget deficit. According to estimates released earlier this week by the home ministry, daily food and administrative costs for housing about 68,000 undocumented foreign workers in 10 detention centers across the country total nearly 2.4 million ringgit ($731,000). If medical expenses are included, the daily cost swells to 5.1 million ringgit. That amounts to around 1.0% of Malaysian government expenditures earmarked for 2014, said Rajiv Biswas, Asia-Pacific chief economist at global consultancy IHS. Malaysia has been pushing economic reforms aimed at shrinking its budget deficit, which has plagued the industrializing country since the Asian Financial Crisis in the late 1990s. After retaining power in May’s national elections, Prime Minister Najib Razak, slashed subsidies on gasoline, diesel and sugar and curbed other federal spending to tighten government finances. He has proposed several steps to scale back spending government spending, include a 10% reduction in the entertainment allowances of federal ministers and senior bureaucrats. “Against this backdrop of fiscal austerity and budget spending cuts, the costs of this crackdown on illegal immigration is significant,” said Mr. Biswas.
Posted on: Wed, 29 Jan 2014 14:09:24 +0000
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