COMMENT | Migrant labour is a rather tricky problem to solve because of corruption, patronage, abuse etc at every stage of the process involving senior ministers and politicians, government servants at every level, and enforcement agencies.

It is a ginormous muddle without a solution unless the Madani government is prepared to pull it out by the roots, face down all attendant problems and bring to account hundreds of people involved.

The eventual losers are the migrant workers who are left high and dry by syndicates even after paying huge amounts to get here and employers who will have to pay needlessly large amounts of money to get migrant labourers.

Malaysiakini’s latest exposé talks of syndicates which obtain quotas for imports of foreign workers but have no need for them. They sell those quotas to those who need them, pocketing millions of ringgit for nothing at all.

That’s only the tip of the iceberg. Others cream off thousands of ringgit per worker for getting them employment and others (sometimes the same persons or companies) get thousands more from employers for each worker.