KUALA LUMPUR: The National Foreigners Enforcement and Registration System (NERS) will be implemented beginning June 1 to monitor and manage the entry of foreign nationals into the country.
Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said it was part of the government’s holistic initiative to monitor foreign nationals in this country who comprised workers, tourists, traders and students besides illegal immigrants.
“Among other things, the system will be able to tackle issues on forging of documents, overstaying, and the abuse of visas, passes and permits,” he told journalists at the Parliament lobby, here yesterday.
Earlier, he chaired the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Foreign Workers and Illegal Immigrants at Parliament House, here.
He said the system would be adopted at the 96 entry points into the country and would take only 20 seconds to register and record information on foreign nationals entering the country.
He said the finger print taken during the process would enable the authorities to identify foreigners if they violated the country’s law.
Muhyiddin said such a system had already been adopted in other countries such as Singapore, Australia and Hong Kong.
He said the Malaysian Immigration System (MyIMMs) and NERS would also be strengthened by developing the Advanced Passenger Screening System (APSS) which was at the stage of detailing specifications.
He said today’s meeting also studied the proposed Levy Mechanism which was tabled by the Human Resource Ministry and the committee had agreed in principle on the proposal that the levy to be charged would be based on the number of workers engaged and the duration of their services. — Bernama