Employers in Malaysia who fail to register illegal workers might face caning

Employers in Malaysia who fail to register their undocumented foreign workers under the Enforcement Card (E-Card) programme by 30 June risk facing caning punishment, according to a report by Bernama.

Immigration Department director-general Mustafar Ali said that the caning punishment could be meted out to employers who are found to still be having at least five illegal foreign workers in their employment. Additionally, they could be fined RM10,000 per illegal worker after the deadline.

Speaking to the press at a Ramadan function in Malaysia yesterday, Mustafar said:  "Despite ample warnings to register such workers under the E-Kad programme since it was launched on 15 Feb, there are still employers who have yet to do so. We will be coming after them come 1 July.”

"We also advise them not to come at the last minute and cause massive congestion at the registration counters," he added.

Mustafar said that as of 7 June, at total of 104,507 E-Kad had been issued by the department as compared to the 400,000 to 600,000 illegal foreign workers targeted.

Sharing his opinion as to why employers in Malaysia were “taking it easy”, he said that it was just them believing the deadline would be extended, or simply that they could get away with it.

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