Parliament: 2.6 million registered foreign workers

THERE are some 2.6 million registered foreign workers in the country who hold a valid pass from the Immigration Department, says Deputy Home Minister Datuk Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar.

However, he said the actual number of illegal immigrants in the country could not be ascertained at this time as most of them had registered under the 6P Bersepadu legalisation programme implemented earlier.

The Government, said Wan Junaidi, had also carried out 331 operations on businesses from January to September this year and as a result, 15 employers were arrested.

“A total of 9,630 illegal immigrants were deported to their respective countries.

“The ministry has registered over 1.3 million illegal immigrants under the 6P Bersepadu programme to weed out illegal immigrants,” he told Datuk Shamsul Anuar Nasarah (BN-Lenggong).

Shamsul Anuar had asked the ministry to state the number of illegal immigrants in the country and the estimated number of illegals who could not be traced as well as the solution to manage them.

Wan Junaidi also said the authorities were concerned over the high number of illegal immigrants in Sabah, adding that various steps were being taken under the 6P operations to tackle the problem in the state.

“So far, 99 operations have been carried out in Sabah as of Sept 1, in which 1,821 foreigners were vetted and 532 arrested under the Immigration Act,” he added.

On the plan to use the newly introduced I-Kad for foreign workers, Wan Junaidi said it would be divided into eight sectors with specific colours to identify the workers in their field.

“However, a higher cost will be incurred for advanced features on the card, which can identify and locate the foreign workers,” he said, adding that the cost had not yet been determined by the Cabinet.

He said the reason for the high number of foreign workers in the country was due to locals who did not want to fill job opportunities in certain sectors.