BACKGROUND OF FOREIGNERS IN COUNTRY TO BE SCREENED - MINISTER

PUTRAJAYA, Jan 7 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian government is committed to
further enhance the monitoring and administration of foreigners in the country
to ensure they do not pose any danger to the security of the country said Home
Minister Hishammuddin Tun Hussein.

Students, expatriates, foreign workers and illegal immigrants would be
screened to determine their background and identify to ensure they do not pose
any danger to the safety level of the country, he said.

Hishammuddin said the measures were part of the ministry's regularization
programmes and Key Performance Index (KPI) areas focused by the ministry this
year.

"There is a need to identify the actual number of the foreigners here
because on and off, you hear cases and issues whether it involved students,
expatriates or illegal workers.

"Those are issues that happen all the time and we must look at it together
and see whether it is a threat because without carrying out such an exercise we
will not know if they posed any threat," he told reporters after a post-cabinet
meeting at his ministry here Wednesday.

"We must monitor not only foreign workers but also monitor foreigners
who enter the country to ensure where they stayed, their true identity and
status. How to determine such details or how to send them back."

He added that he would meet and brief Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin
on Jan 18.

Asked whether the move would end with a massive repatriation exercise, he
said: "I don't think so. If it is such a serious problem, we will feel it right
now. What we want to do is to do corrective or pre-emptive work before it
becomes a big problem."

Meanwhile, he added that the ministry was able to fulfill three KPI last
year in resolving issues like Citizenship, entry permits and birth certificates.

"It is a big and encouraging development since the problem was pending for
almost 10 years (1997-2006) and involved 32,927 applications for Citizenship,
16,812 for entry permits and 93,360 for birth certificates.

"Our current objective is to try and settle applications received in 2007,"
he said.

--BERNAMA