Employers Urged To Register Workers Before Dec 31 Deadline

UNITY: Wahab (seated fifth left) posed for a group photo with officers from the participating agencies.

19/12/2011 (Borneo Post) - The Immigration Department is targeting to register 20,000 to 50,000 illegal foreign workers in Sarawak before the grace period ends this Dec 31.

And for this to be possible, its director Datuk Robert Lian is urging more employers to come forward and register their employees before the deadline.

Lian was commenting on the 6P programme which included deportation as a last resort.

Others are registration, legalisation, amnesty, monitoring and enforcement.

“We have opened up registration counters in every division for the purpose apart from our mobile teams,” he pointed out.

He said the mobile teams comprise five persons each who would visit the interior areas to assist employers register their foreign workers, as they are aware that some employers need seven to eight hours to bring their workers down to the centres.

In Miri, he said the mobile team would go to timber camps in the interior areas such as at Sungai Layun and Kilometre 10.

At the same time, he revealed that oil palm plantations recorded the most number of registered workers in the state compared with other sectors.

Topping the list are workers from Indonesia, followed by those from Bangladesh and Thailand.

Lian was met after the ‘Team Building’ programme (initiated by the Ministry of Home Affairs) at Lambir shooting field yesterday involving various government enforcement agencies such as the Police, Rela, Civil Defence (JPAM) and Prisons Department.

Also present during the event were deputy secretary general of the Ministry of Home Affairs Datuk Wahab Mohd Yasin, the programme’s organising chairman Datuk Mohmed Asri Yusof and Miri deputy police chief Supt Ismail Idris.

The programme was the first of its kind to be held in the country.