LAW TO BE AMENDED TO TRANSFER OUT FOREIGN PRISONERS

KOTA KINABALU (Malaysia), June 8 (Bernama) -- The Prisons Act 1995 is to be
amended to allow foreigners imprisoned in Malaysia to be transferred to their
home countries to serve out their sentence, Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein
said Monday.

He said the ministry was preparing the draft of the amendment bill
pertaining to the powers of the minister to execute the transfer as well as to
accept Malaysians serving jail terms abroad.

"The (amended) act will help to ease the congestion in prisons," he said
when opening the Sabah Prisons new headquarters building in Kepayan near here.

Hishammuddin said statistics as of May 15 this year showed that 41 per cent
or 15,279 of the 37,242 prisoners in Malaysia were foreigners.

"This will incur heavy costs for the country if allowed to go on," he said.

Hishammuddin also said that the ministry started a parole system in July
last year where alternative penalties such as community service were introduced.

He said the ministry was considering proposing alternative penalties without
imprisonment for minor offences and offences under the Immigration Act.

On the congestion in prisons, he said statistics as at May 18 this year
showed that the 30 prisons in the country had 36,847 inmates when their capacity
was only 32,200 people.

He said the government had approved the construction of 16 new prisons with
a capacity of 18,000 people.

Hishammuddin said he would focus on congestion, rehabilitation,
standardisation and key performance index (KPI) to upgrade the service at
prisons in the country.

Speaking to reporters later, he appealed to employers in Sabah to register
their illegal immigrant workers, saying that after a stipulated period the
government would expose the companies which failed to do so.

On Sunday, Hishammuddin announced a 50 per cent discount on the foreign
worker levy in East Malaysia state of Sabah from July 1 to Oct 1 in a move to
encourage employers to register their illegal immigrant workers.
-- BERNAMA