Illegal workers seek Malaysian amnesty
Illegal workers seek Malaysian amnesty
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Illegal immigrants from Indonesia and the Philippines have rushed to legalize their presence in the eastern state of Sabah under an government amnesty, reports said yesterday.
Although the estimated 400,000 illegal workers from the two countries have six months to comply with the government's "regularization" program, the rush had began at nine registration centers, the New Sunday Times reported.
Under the "regularization" scheme, Indonesians and Filipinos are to be given six months from March 1 to sign up with their embassies or consulates in Malaysia in order to stay in Sabah and the nearby territory of Labuan, an offshore financial center.
Valid travel documents would allow Indonesians and Filipinos to continue staying in resource-rich Sabah and Labuan provided they are employed. Those unemployed would have to find a job within three months from March 1 or face deportation.
The regularization does not cover an estimated 1,000 illegals from Pakistan, China and other countries who must leave the state by April 1.
Sabah Chief Minister Yong Teck Lee said earlier the program would enable the government to have better control over illegal immigrants and prevent foreign workers from acquiring Malaysian identity cards.
"An operation to track down unemployed illegal immigrants would be carried out after the first three months of the regularization period," Yong said.
The regularization program is part of labor-starved Malaysia's efforts to curb illegal immigration, which has been blamed for rising social problems. Foreign workers have provided a vital source of cheap labor for the agriculture, construction and manufacturing sectors.
Indonesia and the Phillipines are co-members with Malaysia in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and share extensive borders where illegal travel is difficult to check.
Malaysia's rapid economic growth, averaging eight percent a year over the past decade, has resulted in a massive shortage of workers in the lower-paying labor-intensive sections of the fast industrializing economy.
About half of the two million foreign workers in Malaysia are believed to be illegally staying in the country. With a local labor pool of only eight million people, Malaysia is believed to have the world's highest ratio of foreign labor to local workers.
The other sources of illegal workers in Malaysia are Bangladesh, Myanmar, and India. Malaysian officials have estimated that some 200,000 Bangladeshi illegals are in the country.