Human Resources Minister Richard Riot Jaem said this in response to a question by BN Senator Chin Su Phin, in the Dewan Negara, on whether the claim that seven out of 10 foreign workers in this country were undocumented was true, the Borneo Post reported.
Without denying the statistic mentioned in the senator’s question, the minister said that only three out of 10 foreign workers are now illegal with the rehiring and resettlement of illegal immigrants programme.
The programme was implemented by the immigration department since Feb 15 this year, following the government’s move to freeze the intake of foreign workers.
Aside from enabling illegal foreign workers to obtain valid work permits and help fulfil industry needs, the programme was to help the government ascertain the number of illegal migrants in the country for the purpose of monitoring security.
In his answer to the Dewan Negara, the minister said there were two type of illegal foreign workers, those who came into the country via legal means and those who were here without any valid travel documents or employment permits.
“The latter includes foreign immigrants with falsified passports and fake employment permits and who enter the country via unofficial channels,” he said.
On the former, Richard explained that even though such foreign workers came into the country using valid documents, they become illegal for various reasons, such as when their work permits expire and are not renewed, they are terminated from service, or their employers fail to renew their work permit.
“Such foreign workers would have the Malaysian Immigration Department’s stamps on their passports or travel documents, record of their names, passport numbers, and identities of employers stated in the foreign workers approval document issued by the department,” he said.
Richard said that government will continue to crackdown on employers harbouring and employing illegal foreign workers.