PUTRAJAYA: The Malaysian Immigration Department has detained a total of 146,876 illegal immigrants in a series of nationwide crackdown conducted over the past two years.
“We have conducted 26,870 enforcement operations from 2014 to 2016,” anounced its director-general Datuk Seri Mustafar Ali today.
“And as of last year, we recorded 15 human trafficking cases, in which three involved a total transaction of RM25 million.”
"There are currently 1.8 million registered foreign workers in the country and counting. I’m expecting more because we don't have the data on the illegal foreign workers,” Mustafar said.
“I understand the need for more foreign workers in certain sectors. But we need to bring them in through proper channels.”
Mustafar said his department is currently embarking on a series of engagements with the business community to explain the need for the Employer Mandatory Commitment (EMC), which requires Malaysian employers to pay the levy for their foreign workers.
“We need EMC to ensure that the employers are more responsible towards their foreign workers – from the moment they hire the workers till they were sent home,” he said. “We hope EMC can reduce the number of foreign workers in the country.”
Mustafar said the rising number of foreign workers in the country also saw the creation of a new post – the assistant director general of operations in the Immigration Department.
“The government has agreed with my proposal to restructure the department,” said Mustafar.
“More top officers within the department will be promoted. We are working on having zero tolerance towards corruption.”
Citing that the number of corrupt officials has decreased since he took over the helm five months ago, Mustafar said 32 officers have been dismissed for various disciplinary problems, including corruption as of Dec last year.
“I must admit that it is hard for us to achieve zero corruption. But with the restructuring of the department, including better promotion and increment for my officers, I’m hoping that everyone can develop zero tolerance towards graft.” he said.