Penampang: State Secretary Datuk Sukarti Wakiman said the State Government is considering allowing foreign workers to keep their wives and children in the plantations following appeals from their employers."The employers have appealed to us to allow dependents or families of the foreign workers to stay with them especially those in the plantation sector. We are considering their appeal because some of these illegal immigrants bring along their dependents when coming over to Sabah.
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"We may allow the dependents to stay as the wives can also work in the plantations to help their husbands," he said.Previously in 2008 and 2009, Sukarti said foreign workers here were allowed to keep their dependents with them.
Meanwhile, he said 15,566 illegals had registered at the nine centres in Sabah up to July 22 under the 5P Programme which started Monday.Sukarti described the figure as being relatively small when compared to about 62,000 illegal immigrants who have been recorded as working in various sectors in Sabah.
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"We do not have the breakdown for the latest figure of 15,566 illegal immigrants but out of 12,218 that were registered from Monday (July 18) to Thursday (July 21), a total of 9,092 (74pc) were Indonesians followed by 3,059 Philippines (25pc) and others (1pc) namely 16 Indians, 47 Pakistanis, two Vietnamese and one from China."That is why the Immigration Department is making efforts to go to the plantations to register illegal workers under its outreach programme beginning early next week before this registration ends on Aug 1," he said.
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Sukarti who also chairs Sabah's 5P Implementation Main Committee, said this in a press conference at Sigah Hall, here, Saturday.He reiterated that employers should submit their additional quota applications to recruit foreign workers at the one-stop centres provided at all the registration centres."We are facilitating employers to legalise their illegal foreign workers through the proper channel and speeding up the process where the employers do not have to wait for weeks and months to recruit them legally."Now, the Indonesian and Philippines do not impose cooling periods for their citizens to return home to their country of origin as they could re-enter Malaysia in just few days upon returning home," he said.
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He also reminded employers to make sure their foreign workers go for medical checks at appointed clinics in Sabah before going back to their country of origin.This is because these medical reports could be used when they return to Sabah to work, he explained.
