Nur Jazlan irked by company’s claims over rehiring of illegals

KUALA LUMPUR: It is a case of guerilla marketing gone wrong.

A company which sent spam WhatsApp messages, claiming to have been endorsed by the Immigration Department to help illegal foreign workers obtain work permits, shot themselves in the foot after their offer reached the phone of Deputy Home Minister Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed.

The ministry now intends to shut down the so-called rehiring company, he said.

“I do not recall endorsing them,” he said at Parliament lobby yesterday.

In the message, the company claimed that it had an edge over other companies chosen for the Government’s rehiring programme as it was supposed to have been given “advantages” by the ministry.

It also claimed that its clients would not need to worry about “Immigration bottlenecks.”

“We will be making a police report against this company and will investigate how many foreigners have been duped by it,” Nur Jazlan said.

He said that employers and foreign workers should know that the only companies mandated for this rehiring programme were Bukti Megah Sdn Bhd, International Marketing and Net Resources Sdn Bhd (Iman) and MyEG.

The rehiring programme is meant for illegal workers to have a chance to obtain work permits to meet labour demands in specific sectors.

This online registration of illegal foreign workers, which began on Feb 15, was supposed to end on Dec 31, but the Cabinet reportedly decided to bring forward the deadline to June 30 following the lacklustre response.