Undocumented workers: Don't register runaways

The Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) is concerned that no decision has been made on whether legal action would be taken against employers who fail to carry out the exercise.

Based on feedback from members, the FMM understands that employers in the manufacturing sector are cooperating with the government to register their foreign workers under the biometric system.

However, there have been resource constraints, namely an insufficient number of biometric machines and manpower in state Immigration offices, particularly in Selangor, Penang and Johor, which are among states with a high number of foreign workers.

The mobile registration facility for employers with 500 and more workers has, however, been more effective than registration at Immigration counters.

One state Immigration office completed the biometric registration for 1,400 workers at a company in Johor by working on a Saturday from 7.30am to 8.30pm.

In some states, Immigration offices have facilitated registration by allowing several companies to group together to make up the threshold for mobile registration.

Otherwise, employers below the threshold level would have to bring their workers in batches each day for registration at Immigration counters.

If the registration of the batch is not completed, the workers would have to return the following day as part of the next batch, disrupting production.

This current exercise has failed in its objective to deter legal workers from running away and registering under the 6P amnesty programme, commencing this month.

A company in Selangor lost 30 foreign workers within a day. Another in Johor had lost 113 of its 1,500 foreign workers by July 18.

In addition, some state Immigration offices were not aware that during the exercise to register legal foreign workers, the penalty would be waived for employers who reported on runaway foreign workers.

Employers are frustrated that they are not able to stop their workers from absconding.

FMM is, therefore, calling on the government to issue a strong statement to warn legal workers against running away. Such workers should not be registered during the amnesty programme.