Continue legalising foreign workers, urges expert

The government says it is moving to prevent migrant workers from deliberately overstaying after their passes expire.

PETALING JAYA: An expert has called on the home ministry and the immigration authorities to continue carrying out legalisation programmes for illegal foreign workers on a regular basis.

Adrian Pereira, the executive director of monitory rights advocacy group North South Initiative, said fears that illegal workers might deliberately overstay after their passes expired were “totally unfounded”.

“The many migrants who are undocumented in Malaysia are a result of the tragic reality of their recruitment process and the poorly executed rehiring. It is not because migrants are taking advantage (of the programme).

“The Right to Redress Coalition has proposed that labour migration be fully handled by the human resources ministry, not the home ministry. Yes, legalisation is the way to go,” he told FMT when contacted.

Adrian was asked to comment on the ministry’s move to cease the legalisation of illegal immigrant workers on a regular basis.

Deputy Home Minister Mohd Azis Jamman had said this was to prevent illegal immigrants from taking the country’s laws lightly and deliberately overstaying after their passes expired.

Azis told the Dewan Negara yesterday that the frequent holding of legalisation programmes could become a bad culture for the country.

However, Adrian said the move showed that the ministry was in denial over the root cause of the large number of undocumented workers.

He attributed the high numbers of undocumented workers to the “unscrupulous” recruitment system and the poor execution of government rehiring programmes.

He urged the ministry to wait until the Independent Committee on Migrant Workers Management comes up with its recommendations before making any policy decisions.

The joint committee, comprising former top civil servants, activists and lawyers, was formed to oversee and formulate policy recommendations for the management of migrant workers, a key election pledge of the Pakatan Harapan government following strong public demand for a curb on foreign labour import.

Adrian previously defended the need for foreign workers, saying any effort to reduce dependency on them would inadvertently hurt the economy. -FMT