The government is not going to issue new licence for outsourcers for another two years.
The government had not issued licence for new manpower agencies since October 2011 due to increased irregularities.
According to Ministry of Labour and Employment, it will take two more years to be able to issue new permits due to the huge challenges in regulating and monitoring the existing manpower companies, apart from pressure from them.
Since lack of regulatory mechanism has hit the sector, there is no point in registering new manpower companies without proper inspection and regulation mechanism, according to department of foreign employment.
Currently, there are some 750 recruiting agencies and 350 authorised agents but the department claims that more and more companies were resorting to dishonest practices taking advantage of the poor inspection and regulatory mechanism.
Last month, the department cancelled the registration of eight recruiting agencies while 34 others faced departmental action.