NILAI, Feb 9 (Bernama) -- The government's decision to approve 100,000 applications from new foreign workers to work in the country over the past five months was made to meet the demand from manufacturers following the global economic recovery.

Human Resources Minister Datuk Dr S.Subramaniam said today that this was because during the global economic downturn, most factory workers had been laid off while 600,000 out of 2.2 million foreign workers in the country were deported to their countries of origin.

"When the economy recovered, the companies needed their workers back and they made an application, which the government approved to enable them to resume operations," he told reporters after visiting Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan (Tamil) Ladang Labu here.

He said the decision was made after giving much consideration to various aspects, including foreign investment, the opportunity to create more jobs for local people and also the opportunity for support service.

"That is why the government, despite the policy to reduce the number of foreign workers, had to be very careful to ensure that the decision does not affect other issues," he said.

Subramaniam also said that the new intake did not involve Bangladeshi workers as recruitment of workers from Bangladesh remained frozen.