SHAH ALAM, 5 Jan 2018:
The abuse of foreign workers’ i-Kad by employers – who employed the them in sectors other than the ones they were registered for – are among the reasons these workers are still being detained by the Immigration Department.
Director-general Datuk Seri Mustafar Ali said the employers did so to avoid paying different levy charges for each sector, especially sectors with higher charges.
“The i-Kad entitles the foreign worker to work at one location with only a certain employer, but many have misused it. For example, i-Kad holders registered to work in Shah Alam are detained in Immigration operations in Johor Bahru … that’s an offence.
“Having the i-Kad for foreign workers does not mean that they (employers) can do as they like … the employer should be responsible for the i-Kad holder.”
Mustafar was commenting on registered foreign workers who were still being detained by the department in its operations.
The i-Kad is issued based on the sector the foreign worker is in – differentiated with the colour of the card – namely expatriates (gold), agriculture (green), plantation (orange), construction (grey), services (yellow), manufacturing (red) and domestic helpers (brown).
Meantime, he said 630,000 foreign workers and employers were registered under the rehiring programme which began in Feb 2017, and ended last week.
However, he said only 233,000 applications were complete for processing, while 397,000 were still pending due to incomplete documents.
Separately, a total of 47,092 illegal immigrants, including 885 children between a day and 12 years old, were detained by the Immigration Department throughout 2017.
Mustafar said the arrests were made following checks on 188,884 foreign migrants in 16,208 operations conducted across the country.
“Of the 47,092 nabbed, 33,079 were men and there were 13,128 women. The children who were detained had been brought into this country by their parents who were also illegals, while a number of the children were born here.
“From the humanitarian aspect, we were sensitive to their situation but we must be stern in enforcing the law. That is why we often discuss with the concerned parties including non-governmental organisations on the best way to manage the illegals and their children held at the detention depots.”
Of the 47,092 illegals detained, he said 23,898 were rounded up in 8,852 ‘Mega’ operations for committing the offence of not registering themselves for the E-Card (enforcement card), of which the registration period ended on 30 June 2017.
He noted that 1,257 employers were also arrested in 2017 for hiring and harbouring illegals, and out of this number, 80% had been charged while the others were in the process of being charged.
“In Selangor, for instance, the employers detained had been aptly punished with imprisonment and fines. In fact, in one such case in this state, an employer was also sentenced to one whipping for still hiring and harbouring 15 illegals.
“That’s why we always remind employers not to wait until they get a stroke of the cane.”
Mustafar said the Immigration Department would continue to intensify operations to curb the influx of illegals into the country and would not compromise with any party in order to safeguard the security and sovereignty of the country, as well as to prevent the spread of diseases which could be brought in by illegals.
– Bernama