Full Crackdown to Follow Short Period of Amnesty in Malaysia

27 June 2011 – KUALA LUMPUR: Foreign workers and refugees in Malaysia will be able to sleep peacefully in the months to come as the government halts all operations against undocumented foreigners after an amnesty program takes effect on 11 July.
Peaceful nights, however, will soon change into sleepless ones as major crackdown will commence after the amnesty program expires at the end of this year.

Recently, the country’s Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin announced that the first-time-ever amnesty program will commence with a two-week registration drive beginning 11 July for undocumented foreign workers or their employers.

The so called `whitening program’ will be followed by amnesty for all foreign workers who are willing to register under the newly introduced biometric system, a system that will help the government to locate and identify them in the future.

Meanwhile, it is reported that several self-proclaimed agents have offered services as `middle man’ for foreign workers who want to register under the amnesty program.

A spoke person from the Ministry of Interior Affairs has warned that stern action will be taken against the `middlemen’ who collects fees illegally from workers intending to participate in the amnesty program.

According to another report, Ministry of Interior Affairs was instructed to review and standardize the processing fees to avoid fraud targeting foreign workers.

Reporting by Thomas Chong