He said 72,324 of them will be returning to their home country while 72,506 have opted to register with the recalibration programme, which would see them become legal workers here.

“The government also collected RM35.1 million in fines and payments for special passes for undocumented migrants who want to return to their original countries or continue working in Malaysia.

“It’s not that we want to chase them out or that we don’t allow them to stay in Malaysia, but we want them to work here with valid documents,” he said.

He also called on all foreigners including undocumented migrants to cooperate with Putrajaya in order to make the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme a success and to achieve herd immunity.

Hamzah said he was confident that migrants would register for the vaccine, citing the encouraging responses received from those who participated in the workforce recalibration programme.

Hamzah added the immigration department had an important role to ensure that more than 70% of the population in Malaysia, including foreigners who had valid documents, were registered as vaccine recipients.