Published: Thursday July 7, 2011 MYT 2:57:00 PM
Updated: Thursday July 7, 2011 MYT 3:00:24 PM
Amnesty programme only after all legal foreign workers in biometric system
By MAZWIN NIK ANIS
PUTRAJAYA: The Cabinet has decided that all the two million legal foreign workers be registered and included in the biometric system before starting on a similar exercise for the illegal ones, said Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
The Deputy Prime Minister said the Cabinet felt this should be done first, especially when there was information that unscrupulous people were trying to make quick cash from the Government's intention to register illegal foreign workers in the country.
He said the Government was informed that certain parties, upon hearing that the Government wanted to register illegal workers, had planned to "turn the legal workers into illegals and make some money from this."
"The Cabinet has decided to push back the timeline to register illegal foreign workers and concentrate on putting the legal ones into the biometric system first.
"The employers will be tasked to come out and register their workers and details of this exercise, including its commencement date will be announced by the Home Ministry," he told reporters Thursday.
Muhyiddin said he had agreed to the ministry's request for some time to register the existing pool of foreign workers the market.
He said even though they have valid work permits, these workers must be in the biometric system so that their movement "especially from one work place to another", could be closely monitored.
The Star reported that the programme to legalise and grant amnesty to an estimated two million illegals in the country - scheduled to start on Monday - had been deferred so that the authorities have more time to prepare for the mammoth exercise.
On June 23, the Government announced a two-week legalisation and amnesty exercise - codenamed 6P - during which illegal foreign workers and their employers would be spared from legal action if they took part in the drive.
The 6P programme comprises registration, legalisation, amnesty, supervision, enforcement and deportation and was expected to take six months to complete.
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