Malaysia postpones registration of illegal foreign workers including Indians

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia today indefinitely postponed a massive exercise to fingerprint at least two million illegal foreign workers including many Indians in the country until all parties were ready for it.

An amnesty scheme to encourage illegal migrant workers to come and register was to begin today but has been indefinitely postponed.

The Government had announced that it would first register legal foreign workers by updating the biometric database and later start registering illegal foreign workers.

The exercise of registering illegal workers would be held only after all parties were sure the process could be carried out without any glitch, Malaysian Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said here today.

"We have decided to postpone the registration of illegal workers through the biometric system until further preparations," he told reporters.

"There are several technical issues and national security matters that we have to sort out before going ahead with this," he added.

Malaysia relies heavily on foreign labour specially in sectors such as the construction industry, plantations, restaurants, as maids and gardeners.

Every year, several thousand people from Indonesia, India and several other countries get merged into the multi-ethnic population after their visas expire and become illegal migrants, preferring to work without papers than to return to their home country.
The amnesty programme undertaken every few years by the government to drive out illegals, would allow illegal immigrants to leave the country without facing punishment such as jail terms and caning.