Home Ministry secretary-general Wan Ahmad Dahlan Abdul Aziz said the extension was decided at a Cabinet meeting on June 23.

He said the meeting also agreed to expand the recalibration programme to Sabah and Sarawak, subject to the approval of the respective state governments.

The plan calls for the management and regularisation of illegal immigrants in the country as legitimate foreign workers. It comprises the repatriation programme, under which the migrant workers could return to their home countries, and the labour recalibration programme, under which they could register and be issued work papers.

The plan was initially implemented from Nov 16, 2020 to June 30 this year.

Wan Ahmad Dahlan said as of July 1, a total of 248,083 illegal immigrants have registered under the plan.

Of the total, he said 97,892 had registered to return to their country of origin while 149,889 had registered under the labour recalibration programme.