Sim added that the middlemen were only “paper-shifters” taking advantage of a “flawed system”.
His statement follows a Feb 13 announcement by immigration department director-general Mustafar Ali, who said undocumented migrant workers would be able to register for a temporary card called the Enforcement Card (E-Card).
Mustafar said the E-Card registration exercise, which would run from Feb 15 to June 30, was free and that the card would be given to the workers two days after application. He also warned employers against using middlemen or agents.
Given these assurances, Sim said he was shocked to learn in Parliament on March 20 that there were indeed middlemen involved in the registration process.
“Not just one, but three super-agents which the employers/migrant workers have to go through before applying for the ‘free E-Kad directly from Immigration Department’,” he said in a statement today.
Sim added that the “free” card would only be issued after a payment of up to RM800 per worker to one of the “super-agents”.
He said other costs would also be incurred once the card was received.
Sim, who is also Bukit Mertajam MP, said he was told in Parliament that the government had appointed three companies to do the rehiring process: Iman Sdn Bhd, MyEG Bhd and Bukit Megah Sdn Bhd.
“In other words, it is still business as usual at the immigration department: well-connected super-agents raking lucrative profits doing paper-shifting jobs,” he said.
Hitting out at the E-Card programme as “a redundant extra layer of bureaucracy”, Sim said it had given the false impression of ongoing reform.
“Why can’t the immigration department do the rehiring directly just as it is issuing the E-Kad directly?
“Approval of migrant workers comes from the government, middlemen are only paper-shifters who take advantage of this flawed system to rake hundreds of millions.”
He said according to estimates from the immigration department, up to 600,000 migrant workers were expected to register. This translated to roughly RM500 million in revenue for the “super-agents” for only four months of work.
This was besides holding close to RM1 billion in levies, charges and fees payable to the government, he said.