The stock of migrant workers in
the GCC has reached over 22
million in 2013 which constitute
46% of the total population in the
GCC States.1
In Saudi Arabia
migrant workers constitute 27% of
the total workforce while Oman
29%, Bahrain 54%, Kuwait 61%,
Qatar and the UAE 89% each.
Contrary, the number of
documented migrant workers in
Malaysia is around 2.3 million
(about 19%) amongst about 12
millions total workforce in the
country.

2
The figure is likely to
double if the illegally employed
migrant workers in Malaysia are
included.3 Most of the migrant
workers fill in the low-skilled job
categories mainly in agriculture,
construction, plantation,
manufacturing, services and
housemaids those are treated –
dirty, dangerous and demeaning –
and those the local citizens shun,
making the countries especially the
GCC highly dependent on
migrants. Report indicates that
Policy Review:
Mandatory Health Test of Migrant Workers
these migrant workers together
with natural resources like oil are
the pillars on which the GCCwealth is built in.

1
The research
entitled “Foreign Labour on
Malaysian Growth”v
indicates that
Malaysia can gain benefit from the
long-term employment of both
semi-skilled and skilled foreign
labour than the locals.
Countries of origin also benefit
from the deployment of its surplus
workforce as remittances are a
relatively constant and reliable
source of income for them. Data
show that around 2 million people
enter into the labour market in
Bangladesh every year against only
500,000 new jobs created for. 

Hence, Bangladesh has become
one of the major labour origin
countries in South Asia with,
average, 400,000 annual
deployment of its workforce.
Remittances sent by the
Bangladeshi migrant workers
contribute about 12% of its annual
GDP, considered as one of the major drivers of the country’s
economic development.