DG: Don’t blame Immigration Dept for carrying out its duty

Mustafar Ali says employers must be prepared to accept the consequences when they violate laws and regulations.

PUTRAJAYA: The Immigration Department should not be blamed for carrying out the duties entrusted to it under existing laws and regulations, said its director-general Mustafar Ali.

He said employers should wise up to this fact and be prepared to accept the consequences when they violated certain laws and regulations.

“The department will not only stop at detaining illegal immigrants, but also continue to investigate every case.

“Employers (who hire illegal immigrants) will also face legal action under existing provisions of the Immigration Act,” he said in a statement today.

Mustafar issued the statement in response to comments made by the management of Kyochon Restaurant on Facebook over the detention of its foreign workers.

The department said the restaurant’s comments were “rash, thoughtless and irresponsible” as it had failed to describe the actual situation and blamed the law enforcement authority.

The management of Kyochon Restaurant, in its Facebook entry, held the Immigration Department responsible for supposedly causing inconvenience to its customers after several of the restaurant’s foreign workers were detained.

On April 28, Mustafar said, a joint enforcement operation was conducted by the Immigration Department in collaboration with the National Registration Department, Kuala Lumpur City Hall, Companies Commission of Malaysia and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission following complaints from the public that several illegal foreign workers were employed at the Kuala Lumpur Pavilion food outlets.

“In the operation, the Kyochon Restaurant premises was also inspected, resulting in the arrest of a local worker and 28 foreign workers for various offences.

“The foreign workers comprised 12 Bangladeshis, eight Filipinos, three Myanmar nationals, two Indonesians, two Nepalese and one Pakistani,” he said.

Mustafar added that the local worker, who claimed to be the supervisor at the premises, was suspected of committing an offence under section 56 (1) (d) of the Immigration Act 1959/63 for harbouring illegal immigrants.

“Employing foreigners without a valid permit is a serious offence,” he said.

He urged employers to register their illegal foreign workers under the E-Card programme which was implemented on Feb 15 and that would end on June 30 this year. -FMT