PUTRAJAYA, 1 July 2017:
Employers’ stubbornness to come forward and register their illegal foreign workers for the ‘Enforcement Card (E-Kad) did not achieve the targeted response.
Immigration director-general Datuk Seri Mustafar Ali said only 23% or 161,056 illegal foreign workers had been registered until 10pm, which is two hours from the final registration deadline at midnight.
He said it involved 28,375 employers with 145,571 E-Kad issued – much lower than the original target of 600,000 illegal workers.
“Is the programme a failure? Is that the only number of illegals out there … we think the programme was not successful because of the employers’ stubbornness to register.
“We have given ample time since Feb 15, even announcements were made in themedia to enable employers to do the appropriate thing but it did not have the expected response.”
In this regard, Mustafar reminded employers and illegal workers not to blame the Immigration and Home Ministry if action is taken against them for failing to make use of the opportunity given to them.
– Bernama