The deadline for the mandatory E-Kad for their foreign workers ended yesterday.

FMT spoke to some business owners and senior executives at the immigration department here yesterday, who admitted to having procrastinated over the matter, and were now having no other choice but to queue with large crowds.

Others meanwhile said they did not know the procedure to obtain the identification cards for their foreign workers.

Umil Ulfah, 29, who owns a grocery shop at Petaling Jaya, said she registered her Bangladeshi workers late as she was not familiar with the process when she first went to the department.

“I figured out the steps after seeing how other employers were doing it,” she said, adding that while six of her workers had already applied, another seven had yet to do so.

Ulfah, who stayed the whole day at the office, said she may have to send the seven back to their countries if they could not be issued the cards.

“I had a wait-and-see approach until the last minute. Many other employers also waited for others to apply before they themselves came forward.

“As far as I am concerned, the immigration (department) has given us enough time. Those who came earlier had their applications processed in just half a day,” she said.

The department has been issuing reminders since Feb 15 for employers to register their foreign workers in order to obtain their E-Kad.

Yesterday, immigration director-general Mustafar Ali expressed disappointment with the attitude of employers as the registration exercise was launched five months.

As of 8am on Friday, a total of 155,680 illegal immigrants working for 26,957 employers had applied for the E-Kad and 140,746 cards were issued, he said. This is only 23% of the 600,000 cards targeted by the Immigration Department.

“I emphasised many times that the deadline for registration is midnight tonight (Friday), and the deadline will not be extended,” he said.

Salwani Abdul Shukur, 35, who drove from Klang at 6am to get in line early, had tried unsuccessfully to get the E-Kad for her Indonesian worker twice in the last two weeks.

“This is the third time I am coming here after failing to get the E-Kad over the last two weeks,” she said.

She said she needed the card to keep her worker who has been assisting her for six years at a primary school canteen.

However, after seeing how massive the crowd was again, Salwani said she doubted that she would be able to settle the matter and may have to return yet again.

“I admit that it’s my fault if I don’t manage to get the E-Kad because I did not know about it from the start,” she said.

Meanwhile, Wan Suhazeli Wan Ahmad, 38, who has hired foreign workers at his engineering firm in Selayang for the last 13 years, said only six of the 36 mostly Bangladeshi and Indonesians currently under him have not received their cards.

“These six workers are my last batch. The other 30 got their E-Kad when I brought them here in April and May. I settled that early so that I don’t have to struggle in the crowded situation that we see today.

“On the first two occasions that I came here, I settled the process within three hours each time. The crowds weren’t this massive either,” he said.

Wan Suhazeli added that he would not blame the immigration if there was no extension to the application deadline. He said many employers failed to seize the chance to apply early in the first few months after the Enforcement Card came into effect.

The immigration department has warned that it will arrest illegal immigrants and prosecute their employers under Sections 56(1) and 55B of the Immigration Act 1959/1963, including those employing immigrants with student passes.

Nurul Azwa contributed to this article.

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