Bosses have until Dec 31 to legalise undocumented workers before large-scale enforcement
Malaysia’s Home Minister, Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin said employers with illegal foreign workers under their employment have until year’s end to participate in the Ministry’s Recalibration Programme. He added that on 1 January, the government would embark on a large-scale enforcement operations to nab undocumented migrants.
“The Recalibration Plan is a chance for employers who are hiring illegal foreign workers to come forward and register with the programme to ensure that all individuals in the country are legal and documented. “We want employers to take this matter seriously because having illegal workers will lead to problems. “We saw how recently when we tried to vaccinate foreign workers, it became difficult with illegal migrants. “As a result, some undocumented migrants died due to Covid-19, and that only leads to more problems. “So get your workers registered with the recalibration programme before December 31. “After that, there will be a large-scale enforcement operation to swoop in on illegals,” said Hamzah at a press conference at the Human Resources Ministry here.
The Recalibration Programme has two parts – Labour and Repatriation. The Labour recalibration programme was implemented to allow employers in certain sectors such as construction, manufacturing, plantation, agriculture and service to legally employ undocumented foreign workers. The Repatriation recalibration programme is where undocumented immigrants could volunteer to return to their homeland.
Datuk Seri Hamzah said 212,926 undocumented migrants had registered to be regularised as legal workers under the Labour recalibration programme. Of the total, 34,318 undocumented workers have passed their verification process, while another 20,889 failed. Another 157,719 have yet to attend the verification process with the Immigration Department. He said those who failed in the regularisation process will be automatically deported under the Repatriation recalibration programme.
