Ken (sixth left) and Hamfatullah (seventh right) in a group photo with State Immigration Department officers and others.
KUCHING: The number of illegal immigrants in the state is on the rise if the arrests made by the State Immigration Department this year are anything to go by.
According to its director Ken Leben, 10 per cent out of the 13,000 foreign workers checked by the department in the first half of this year were found to have violated the Immigration Act and were subsequently arrested.
“We arrested around 1,300 illegal immigrants from January 2016 up till today (yesterday) and this figure seems to be increasing compared to last year’s,” he told a press conference prior to attending the ‘Program Transformasi Minda (PTM)’ closing ceremony at Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) Sarawak Training Centre in Telaga Air here yesterday.
However, he was unable to provide last year’s figure off hand but pointed out that most of those arrested were plantation workers. He thus urged plantation owners to come forward and assist the department by surrendering their illegal workers.
“We have a voluntary deportation programme called ‘3+1 Programme’ in which we will compound them (illegal immigrants) a flat rate of RM300 plus RM100 (for a one-way pass to return home).
“We will deport the illegal immigrants without charging them in court. They will only be deported but of course, they will be blacklisted,” he explained, adding that this programme only applied to those who had overstayed in the state.
Asked on how many illegal workers had been surrendered thus far, Ken disclosed that only 500 had been surrendered by companies and individuals.
“Nevertheless, we will continue to carry out our operations, which is part and parcel of our H2O (Hari-Hari Operasi) Programme, to crack down on illegal immigrants in the state,” he assured.
Meanwhile, on PTM, Ken said the one-week programme organised by the Malaysian Immigration Department was mandatory for all new recruits in the civil service and it was simultaneously organised nationwide.
“This programme aims to steer or mould the new recruits into officers with first class mindset. We want to have knowledgeable, skilful and intelligent staff who are of high integrity. These are the elements and essence of a first class mindset officer.”
He said in Sarawak 28 new recruits have reported for duty for Grade K19 and will be posted based on their suitability to vacancies which are available statewide upon completing PTM. Ken also revealed that the State Immigration Department was facing a shortage of staff, particularly immigration officers at entry points in the state.
“Overall, there are more than 1,500 posts offered by the State Immigration Department involving various ranks. Currently, 1,427 of these posts have been filled.
“But I am confident that we can fill all the posts especially to fill up the vacancies at our state’s 31 entry points of which
seven is by air, 14 by land and 10 by sea.”
Also present at the press conference was State Immigration Department deputy director Hamfatullah Syawal Hamdan.