Nationwide hunt for illegal immigrants begins
PUTRAJAYA: The Immigration authorities has launched a large- scale operation to f lush out illegal immigrants in the country, following the passing of the deadline to register for the Enforcement Card ( E- card).
As at 8am yesterday, a total of 155,680 illegal immigrants working for 26,957 employers had applied for the E- card and 140,746 of the cards were issued. This is only 23 per cent of the 600,000 cards targeted by the Immigration Department.
Immigration director- general Datuk Seri Mustafar Ali is not amused. In fact, he is disappointed with the attitude of the employers. The registration exercise was launched on Feb 15.
“I emphasised many times that the deadline for registration is midnight tonight ( Friday), and the deadline wil l not be extended,” he said at a press conference.
He said that after the deadline passed, the department would arrest illegal immigrants and prosecut e their employers under sections 56(1) and 55B of the Immigration Act 1959/1963, including those employing immig rant s wi th s tudent passes.
A check by reporters yesterday found th e Immi gr a t i o n Department headquarters was crowded with employers and their illegal immigrant workers waiting to register for the E- card at the 11th hour.
“Whi le the deadl ine for applications is midnight, we expect our officers to be working up to 7am tomorrow ( today) to process all the documents received,” said Mustafar. He said the applications received after 11.30am had to be kept aside to complete processing those received earlier. The majority of appl icant s were i l legal immigrants from Bangladesh, followed by those from Indonesia, Myanmar and Nepal, he said.
Mustafa r a l so said t hat Immigration authorities had arrested several individuals who took advantage of the Ecard registration to offer their services as agents.
“They were issuing false Ecards,” he said, adding that employers must apply for the cards without going through the middlemen.