SHAH ALAM, 5 July 2017:
The Immigration Department has detected attempts to come up with a false Enforcement Card or E-Kad.
Director-general of Immigration Datuk Seri Mustafar Ali today said the department had detected 40 of these false E-Kads since the registration exercise began on Feb 15.
“We have acted against the so-called agents who attempted to issue the false E-Kads. We will act against anyone at all trying to issue the false cards.
“We have also detained a Bangladeshi national who had eight false E-Kads in his possession,” he said to reporters after joining an operation to flush out illegal immigrants in Kota Kemuning here today.
Mustafar said the E-Kad issued by the department used a biometric system whereby information on the employer and migrant worker were inserted into the card and it was difficult to falsify.
“The design of the false E-Kad may be similar but the Quick Response Code (QR Code) is different. We can differentiate the card from the fingerprints of the employer and worker.”
On the two operations, which began at 11pm yesterday and ended at 3am today, Mustafar said 156 illegal migrant workers and two employers, all aged between 20 and 45, were arrested in Seri Kembangan and Kota Kemuning.
The workers were from Bangladesh, Nigeria, Vietnam, Indonesia and China, he added.
“The Immigration authorities are strict in safeguarding national sovereignty. The primary factor for any failure of the E-card system is the stubborn attitude of employers in not registering their illegal migrant workers.”
Mustafar said the arrested illegal migrant workers would be deported to their countries of origin. “They will be kept at the respective state immigration detention depots prior to deportation.”
– Bernama