KUALA LUMPUR: Former Klang member of parliament Charles Santiago said Putrajaya MP Datuk Dr Radzi Jidin was playing to the gallery over his proposal to deploy soldiers to help deport undocumented migrants.
During the 2027 Budget debate on Monday, Radzi proposed mobilising soldiers to assist the Immigration Department in a nationwide crackdown on undocumented migrants.
Santiago said Malaysia should first examine how the system produced irregular migration before deploying the army.
He cited the 2026 United States Trafficking in Persons Report, which he said flagged that not a single employment agency in Malaysia had been prosecuted under the Private Employment Agencies Act between 2025 and 2026.
"More troublingly, it identifies official complicity as a significant concern," he said in a statement on X.
Santiago added that Radzi had himself acknowledged that civil servants assist traffickers.
"So why are we proposing to send soldiers after the workers? Why aren't we going after those who profit from and sustain this system?" he asked.
Santiago said that if the army were deployed, it should target other groups.
"Deploy the army? Then deploy it against the employers, that knowingly hire undocumented workers," he said.
"Deploy it against recruitment cartels that manufacture debt bondage, and against corrupt officials who enable labour trafficking."
Santiago said Malaysia had repeatedly faced international scrutiny and embarrassment over its poor labour migration governance.
"We simply cannot deport our way out of a system that we have failed to govern. So stop scapegoating migrant workers and start holding the powerful accountable."
He highlighted that, while the law caps placement fees at one month's wage, or RM1,700, Bangladeshi workers, for example, routinely pay recruitment fees of between RM20,000 and RM30,000.
"That is nearly 12 to 17 times the legal limit, forcing workers to overstay to recoup their payment."
Santiago called for the recruitment-fee system to be dismantled, a mandatory employer-pays principle to be enforced, and binding bilateral labour agreements to be established with labour-sending countries.
Malaysia, one of Southeast Asia's more developed economies, relies heavily on migrant workers to fill labour shortages in sectors including construction, plantations and services.
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