Home Affairs Minister Mohamad Radzi Sheikh Ahmad said the foreign workers bill would provide legislation to oversee Malaysia's 2.6 million foreign workers and ensure they "do not go astray".

Mohamad Radzi said the bill required employers "to provide proper accommodations at the workplace, where it is properly monitored, where they have systems to ensure that the workers do not go astray".

"If they do go out anywhere, there is some sort of a procedure involved," Mohamad Radzi told reporters.

On Saturday, Malaysia's police chief had reportedly suggested confining foreigners to their work premises and putting them under 24-hour surveillance to prevent crime.

Inspector-General of Police Musa Hassan said the move would deter them from getting involved in rising criminal activity, the New Straits Times reported.

"Under the plan, foreign workers, the majority of whom are contract workers, will be placed in their kongsi (workers quarters) at (their) work site and have their activities monitored by the contractor, even after working hours," Musa was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

Asked if the government agreed to the practise of foreign workers having to register with their employers if they wished to go out during breaks or days off, Radzi said it was one of the items recommended in the bill.