KUCHING, March 14: Sarawak Oil Palm Plantation Owners Association (SOPPOA) has expressed extreme dissatisfaction towards the Immigration Department for conducting a raid on foreign workers in oil palm plantations within the Bintulu-Miri region on February 10.
A similar raid was also conducted in an oil plantation in Miri on January 27.
SOPPOA chief executive officer Dr Felix Moh Mee Ho opined that foreign workers are also victims of circumstance and criticised the Immigration Department for collecting huge proceeds from compounds, penalties, or summons.
He explained that due to Covid-19, the implementation of the movement control order (MCO) and closure of international borders have prohibited the arrival of new migrant workers and refrained those already in the country from returning to their home countries.
He further said that the pandemic had caused many government services, including immigration counters, to be closed and the online system shut down, which later brought difficulties for foreign workers to extend their work permits.
“As a result, there were thousands of valid workers who became victims of circumstance just because their work permit could not be renewed as the Immigration departments were not in operation,” he said in a statement today.
Dr Moh also mentioned that the Immigration Department introduced a recalibration programme to assist employers in selected sectors to employ undocumented foreign workers legally.
“Instead of hoping to be rehired, thousands of illegal workers ended up being deported or arrested for not having sufficient documents to support their legalisation processes.
“After knowing those hidden conditions behind the so-called recalibration programme, many employers decided not to encourage undocumented foreign workers to participate in the programme, which subsequently led to its failure,” he added.
Nonetheless, he said by then, the Immigration Department had already gathered sufficient data on the number of illegals residing in premises whose employers had submitted earlier to participate in the programme.
The Recalibration Programme for Repatriation of Illegal Immigrants by the Immigration Department has sent home 192,281 undocumented migrants from December 2020 until December 2021.
As of January 2022, the Immigration Department has reportedly managed to bag RM100 million in compounds from this programme and a further RM200 million collected from deposit payments from employers who participated in the recalibration programme.
Dr Moh described the revenue generated as a further burden on business communities that increased the cost of operations and incurred business losses caused by an insufficient workforce.
He further called on the government to consider that the increase in the number of illegals in the country resulted from situations they had no control over due to Covid-19 and weakness in policy implementation.
“Government departments should not feel proud when they collect huge proceeds from compounds, penalties or summons as these may give a different impression to the general public.
“The main role of government departments is to facilitate their stakeholders to improve businesses’ operations and livelihoods and not flexing their enforcement powers during these trying times,” he said. ― DayakDaily
