15/08/2011 (Bernama) - There was no two-way solution under the current amnesty programme for illegal foreign workers in Sabah, especially in the oil palm industry, Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Tan Sri Bernard Dompok said today.

He said foreign workers who had entered the state illegally must return to their country of origin as Sabah no longer recognised the legalisation of illegal immigrants, an item omitted from the ongoing 6P programme to address the issue of illegal immigrants nationwide.

"They (illegal workers) have to go back and obtain proper documentation in their own country. Only then, can they come back to work in Sabah legally," he told reporters after opening a hawker stall site at the Kampung Nosoob Baru reserved land at Penampang near here.

He was commenting on a request by oil palm planters to allow their illegal foreign workers to remain in Sabah and work in the estates after registering under the amnesty programme.

Dompok reminded employers that Sabah allowed the legalisation of illegal immigrants four times in 1997, 1998, 2008 and 2009, but decided to discontinue with the process this year as it allowed a great influx of new foreigners entering the state illegally to undergo the process.