Serious breach of homeland sovereignty and security

I REFER to the letters “Vetting at certain points not strict enough” and “Onus on Immigration to process foreigners” ( The Star, July 27). I am neither surprised nor shocked by these lapses in immigration security.

These unfortunate lapses that threaten our sovereignty and national security have been going on for ages; you just have to ask any Immigration staff and they will tell you. However, their hands are tied because there are very powerful agents and sub-agents who bulldoze their way with the tacit cooperation of some very irresponsible Immigration officers who are obviously on the take.

Take, for example, the issuance of the special pass to those whose work permits have expired and are to return to their country of origin. The special pass is wantonly issued without any special or good reasons at all. We can understand if the special pass is issued due to the foreigner being admitted to hospital and evidence issued by the hospital are provided; or he or she has some pending legal case in our courts, which too must be supported by legitimate documents.

However, most of the special passes issued are for reasons such as “making arrangements to leave the country”. What sort of reason is this to warrant the issuance of the special pass? They know very well that they have to return to their home country before the expiry of their work permit but they choose not to because they know there are other ways to stay put in our country and work illegally for another month. So who is to be blamed?

Another example is recruiting maids and later asking them to work in restaurants, bars, karaoke centres, coffee shops, etc. When you ask these irresponsible employers, they have the audacity to reply that the maids are their employee so they can be asked to work at their business facility too.

How crazy and strange can we get? Aren’t maids supposed to work strictly and only at the employer’s home and nowhere else? Will the director-general of Immigration and/or secretary-gen- eral of the Home Affairs Ministry enlighten us as this is a very serious breach of our homeland security and sovereignty?