AMNESTY PLAN FOR ILLEGALS TO TAKE OFF ON AUG 1

PUTRAJAYA, July 13 (Bernama) -- The legalisation and amnesty exercise for illegal immigrants, codenamed "6P", will finally take off on Aug 1, said Home Ministry secretary-general Mahmood Adam.

He said the exercise, which was supposed to kick-off Monday, was postponed to make way for the implementation of the biometric registration of legal foreign workers from Wednesday until July 31.

Besides laying the groundwork of the 6P plan, the rationale behind the biometric registration was to deal with legal foreign workers who run away from their employers with the intention of being given amnesty through other employers, he said in a statement Tuesday.

On Monday, Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein decided to postpone the legalisation and amnesty exercise for illegal immigrants as he was not satisfied with some of the plans regarding the programme.

The 6P programme entails registration, whitening, forgiveness, monitoring, enforcement and expulsion of illegal immigrants.

Mahmood said with the biometric registration, the Immigration Department would be able to identify legal foreign workers, who ran away from their employers, including those who removed their identification documents and change them with new ones using different identities.

In such cases, he said, those identified would not be allowed to participate in the whitening process and would be advised to return to their original employers or be deported through the expulsion process.

Some 1.8 million legal foreign workers are employed by Malaysian employers, including 321, who engaged more than 500 workers, nationwide, he said, adding that a briefing on the 6P programme would be given to 228 companies Tuesday night.

"The registration of foreign workers will be fully implemented by the Immigration Department at its offices throughout the peninsular starting Wednesday.

"All employers are required to ensure that all foreign workers employed by them register through the biometric system. No fee will be imposed," he added.
-- BERNAMA