BANGI: The Immigration Department has penalised 946 employers who were detained for harbouring foreign workers without permit (PATI), between Jan 1 and yesterday.
Immigration director-general Datuk Seri Mustafar Ali said it was part of the department’s ongoing efforts to “liberate” the country from illegal immigrants and to hunt down errant employers.
He said the arrests were the result of 10,014 operations carried out nationwide over the same period, with 126,445 foreigners being detained and 31,146 PATI were detained.
Of the total, 317 employers and 10,495 PATI arrested were the result of Ops Mega 3.0 implemented by the Immigration Department since July 1.
“Unfortunately, many of these employers are not adhering to rules and regulations because the penalty is ‘chicken feed’ to them. They should be punished with the rotan as a lesson to others.
“We should follow examples such as Singapore which practice heavy fines,” Mustafar said in a press conference at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) and the Immigration Department here today.
Also present were deputy vice-chancellor of Student Affairs and Alumni of UKM, associate professor Dr Roslee Rajikan; and director of Malaysian and International Institute of Studies (IKMAS) professor Dr Sufian Jusoh.
“Many are hiring immigrants who do not have valid documents or hold expired passports. There are also employers who misuse papers for their workers, for example plantation workers are employed in the construction site due to cheaper levy payments (for plantation sector),” he added.
Elaborating further, Mustafar said many employers prefer to hire PATI instead of locals because of low salaries (RM900 monthly) and lack of contracts enforcement.
“They also argue that it is difficult to hire foreign workers legally because of the Immigration Department’s screening process, but we are prepared to simplify the method as long as they comply with laws and regulations such as levy payments, among others.” -- Reporting by Audrey Vijaindren, Ahmad Suhael Adnan and Mohamad Ridzuan Mohd Anwar