The services of all three vendor companies contracted by the Immigration Department to carry out its rehiring exercise of undocumented foreign workers will be terminated by the end of this month.

The three companies are MyEG Services Sdn Bhd, Iman Resources Sdn Bhd and Bukti Megah Sdn Bhd, according to Immigration Department director-general Mustafar Ali.

"As was mentioned earlier by Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, the re-hiring exercise is scheduled to end on June 30.

"The programme is currently carried out by three vendors - MyEG, Bukti Megah and Iman Resources," said Mustafar who earlier took Muhyiddin on a department raid on undocumented migrants at Petaling Street in Kuala Lumpur.

"With the government's decision, all these programmes will be terminated at the end of June," said Mustafar.

In the past, critics had questioned the BN administration's decision to grant the three companies with a monopoly to process the rehiring applications from undocumented migrant workers.

Among others, concerns were raised over how individuals purportedly linked to Umno had benefited from the appointment of these companies when the job could be done directly by the Immigration Department.

The rehiring exercise was first launched on Feb 15, 2016, as part of government efforts to crackdown on undocumented migrant workers.

"No more of such rehiring will be allowed," Muhyiddin said yesterday when revealing that 744,942 migrant workers were registered and rehired by 83,919 employers as of May 28 this year.

Warning to employers

All of the undocumented migrants registered under the rehiring exercise were re-employed in five approved sectors - plantations, services, farming, construction and manufacturing.

Commenting on the operation today, Muhyiddin said a total of 330 migrant workers were checked and 170 were subsequently arrested for various offences.

From January 1 to May 30, Muhyiddin said the Immigration Department had conducted 6,135 operations nationwide, involving 75,309 migrant workers from which 18,317 were detained for various offences.

Muhyiddin also issued a warning to employers found to harbour undocumented migrant workers saying 462 arrests made during the same period of time with 319 employers being charged. - Mkini