PUTRAJAYA: The Immigration Department is ready to turn on the heat on illegal immigrants via a nationwide operation named Op Mega 3.0, once the government’s rehiring programme ends on June 30.
Immigration director-general Datuk Seri Mustafar Ali said ample time has been given to employers to register and obtain valid work permits for their illegal foreign workers under the rehiring programme.
“There are 83,919 employers who turned up to register and rehire a total of 744,942 illegal foreign workers under this programme. The government agreed to extend the screening process until June 30 for those who have registered.
“Out of the 744,942 illegal immigrants, 307,557 are qualified to be rehired, but 108,234 others were rejected on various grounds and will be deported.
“The remainder (329,151) are those who have registered with the rehiring programme but have yet to step forward to provide their biometric information,” he said.
He urged this group not to wait until the last minute to do so as they would have to undergo a health screening processes.
Implemented from Feb 16, 2016, the rehiring programme serves as an avenue to provide illegal foreign workers with valid working permit to fulfil labour requirement for certain sectors, including manufacturing, construction, plantation, agriculture and services.
Mustafar said illegal immigrants who had failed to secure work permits under the rehiring programme were placed under the 3+1 programme, in which they would be given a grace period of up to Aug 30 to leave Malaysia.
From 2014 until yesterday (May 31), he said the department had arrested 213,709 illegal immigrants and 4,540 employers who hired illegal foreign workers.
“Of these figures, we brought 19,328 illegal immigrants and 659 employers to court,” he said, warning employers of the heavy penalty should they continue to have illegal workers on their payroll.
Mustafar said anyone found to have harboured, hired and allowed illegal immigrants to stay in their premises could face a maximum fine of RM50,000, be jailed for five years and be given not more than six strokes of the rotan. — Reports by Azura Abas, Mohd Husni Mohd Noor and Irwan Shafrizan Ismail