KLANG, Aug 19 — The Selangor Immigration Department is committed to controlling the existing number of foreign workers in the country after the government decided to stop their entry since May.
Its director Khairrul Aminus Kamaruddin said that to date, no new entries for foreign workers have been recorded, especially in Selangor, and they are focusing on monitoring any violations of laws and regulations by this group.
"To date, I understand that there are no new admissions; the existing number is already quite large. Therefore, the Immigration Department, especially in Selangor, will implement elements to control the number of those already in the country through various operations based on intelligence and information from the public.
“The inspections carried out previously showed that most of them had valid entry permits and were caught when violating regulations such as work permits," he said at a press conference after the completion of Op Mahir in the Meru area today.
Khairrul added that the Selangor Immigration Department is open to providing information to any relevant agency, including the Labour Department (JTK), regarding the foreign worker placements or hostels, and embassies for passport verifications.
Previously, he went on the ground to join 17 officers and personnel of the Selangor Immigration Department in conducting a raid on an aluminium factory making mirror frames in an industrial area in Meru and arrested 43 foreigners for various offences.
Further checks revealed that 32 of them had punch cards, proving they were employed regularly at the premises.
Among the identified offences were violating the work permit conditions under Regulation 39B of the Immigration Regulations and not possessing valid documents under Section 6(1)(c) of the Immigration Act 1959/63.
Khairrul said other offences included foreigners possessing blank passports without any entry stamps or work permits, and holding construction sector work permits but working in the factory.
"There are also those who used new passports after their old passports expired but had no record of entry into this country, and the validity of the passport will be referred to their respective embassies for further verification," he said.
