More formalised laws on foreign workers are needed, says Datuk Seri [this is an honorary title] Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz, Malaysia’s minister for law and parliamentary affairs.

With foreign workers making up more than 10% of the country’s population, Nazri tells national news agency Bernama that the current ad hoc arrangements, by which “we tackle issues when they cropped up”, are not longer suitable. Such an act would cover such points as minimum salary.

He emphasised that such a law should cover all types of jobs and nationalities.

Nazri also suggests: “We must look at the experience of other countries, like the Gulf States where the foreign population is more than the locals.”

• Recruiter’s next Global Spotlight turns to Qatar, where less than a quarter of the country’s 1.9m population are local. See the next issue of Recruiter, out 15 June.