Deputy Home Minister Datuk Mohd Azis Jamman (centre) says the ministry will no longer undertake the legalisation of illegal immigrant workers on a regular basis. — Bernama pic

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 12 ― The Home Ministry will no longer undertake the legalisation of illegal immigrant workers on a regular basis.

Deputy minister Datuk Mohd Azis Jamman said this was to prevent illegal immigrants from taking the country's laws lightly and deliberately overstaying after their passes expire.

“The frequent holding of the legalisation programme can become a bad culture for the country,” he said.

For that reason, the Immigration Department was taking stringent measures in its operations because his ministry wanted to give a clear message to illegal immigrants that firm action would be taken against them without any compromise, he told the Dewan Negara today.

He was replying to Senator Datuk Chai Kim Sen who wanted to know if the ministry strictly executed corporal punishment on employers who hired illegal immigrants as stated in Section 55B (3) of the Immigration Act 1959/63.

Commenting further, Mohd Aziz said the operation on illegal immigrants would continue until the problem was resolved.

Meanwhile, he said the ministry was working with the Ministry of Human Resources to refine and fine-tune the policy of hiring foreign workers.

“Insya-Allah (God willing), we will soon announce the new policy including levy payments, new conditions, especially for companies wishing to hire foreign workers,” he said.

Earlier, replying to Chai's original question, Mohd Azis said the Immigration Department had conducted 40,306 operations on employers hiring illegal immigrants from 2016 until Oct 31 this year that saw 3,973 employers being arrested for various offences under the Immigration Act.

In addition, from Jan 1 until Oct 31 this year, 72 employers had been charged under Section 55B (3) of the Immigration Act 1959/63. ― Bernama