Court, not Immigration, has powers to freeze assets

PETALING JAYA: The Immigration Department cannot arbitrarily freeze employers’ assets and bank accounts without a court order, says the Malaysian Employers Federa­tion.

Its executive director Datuk Shamsuddin Bardan said Section 56 of the Immigration Act 1963 did not provide for powers to freeze the assets and accounts of employers with illegal foreign workers.

He said it covered offences that could arise from any breach of the provisions of the Act and the punishments meted out by the court.

“This presupposes that the punishment is imposed by the court and not the Immigration Department,” he added.

On Tuesday, department director-general Datuk Seri Mustafar Ali warned that the assets of employers in the industrial sector who hired and protected illegal foreign workers would be frozen from next month and that it was provided for under the Act.

Shamsuddin pointed out that the court could impose the punishment as provided for in Section 56(1) (d) of the Act, which stated that “anyone harbouring any person whom he knows or has reasonable grounds for believing to have acted in contravention of the Act such as not having a visa, passport or work permit, could be fined upon conviction in court not exceeding RM10,000 or jailed not more than five years”.

But if a person harbours more than five illegal persons, the penalty would not be less than RM10,000 and not more than RM50,000 for each person harboured, jailed not less than six months but not more than five years, and whipping of not more than six strokes.

Shamsuddin said under Section 49A, the department was empowered to authorise a port officer to detain or seize vessels for safe custody for an offence and a ship detained could be released if it provided a guarantee.

He said forfeiture and release of any vessel should be made in court.