|
Malaysia to launch massive operation in January to round up illegals
Malaysia will launch a nationwide operation in January to rid the country of more than one million illegal migrant workers, a junior minister said on Wednesday.Tan Chai Ho, Deputy Home (interior) Minister, said once the amnesty ends on December 31 security forces would arrest the illegals along with their employers and charge them in court. "There are still many illegals in the country. According to unofficial data, there are some one million illegals. So we need to carry out a major operation to make sure there are no illegals in the country," he was quoted as saying by Bernama news agency. Malaysia on Wednesday extended until the end of this month the deadline for illegals to return home. It had earlier given them until the end of the Eid-al-Fitr Islamic holiday in mid-November to leave but the response had been poor. "We hope that with the extension of the amnesty, more illegal (workers) in Malaysia will return to Indonesia," visiting Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak said in Jakarta after talks with Vice President Yusuf Kalla. Malaysia has announced that it will deploy more than half a million members of volunteer neighbourhood security groups to track down and detain the estimated 1.2 million illegal immigrants in the country, mainly from Indonesia and the Philippines. Once the amnesty expires, illegal immigrants face jail sentences of up to five years and a whipping. Tan said 18,607 people have already been caned, mainly from Indonesia, Myanmar and the Philippines, for entering the country without valid documents. As of December 6 a total of 101,668 Indonesian migrants had returned to Indonesia, according to a statement distributed in Jakarta by Najib's staff. Posted by: tipper 2004-12-08 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=50753 |