Press Digest - E-Card a 'tricky' option, says MEF

PETALING JAYA: Malaysian Employers Federation executive director Datuk Shamsuddin Bardan said the temporary Enforcement Card (E-Card) is just the Immigration Department's channel to obtain information about illegal foreign workers and does not benefit employers.
"Even if they (E-Card holders) can be hired, it is just for one year. By February 2018, they will still be without (work) permits and become illegals again and asked to leave (Malaysia)," he said.
Describing the programme as rather tricky, he said: "Illegals without employers cannot apply for the E-Card, unlike the Illegal Immigrants Rehiring Programme (implemented in the past) which was a legalisation process.
"It is not enough even if they (illegal workers) have the E-Card. A year later, they still need to produce their passports and register to become legal workers," he was quoted by Oriental Daily News as saying in a report published yesterday at the start of the E-Card registration programme.
He said the programme was aimed at collecting data on illegals by compelling their employers to apply for the E-Card for them,
"It (the registration process) is free and allows employers to avoid legal action. This is perhaps a good way to get employers to register their illegal workers," he said.
He said if the government is sincere in helping employers or reducing the number of illegal foreign workers, it should re-start the Illegal Immigrants Rehiring Programme.
"The long-term solution is to bring back the Illegal Immigrants Rehiring Programme; get rid of the middlemen and open up applications to hire foreign workers. This is what employers want."
Meanwhile, Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia (ACCCIM) deputy president Tan Sri Lam Kam Sang said whatever it is, it is best that employers apply for the E-Card for their illegal workers.
"We don't know what will happen in a year. The employers have to register them (illegal workers) first. Only then can ACCCIM have the bargaining chips to negotiate with the government.
"If you do not register them now when it is free, what can we say in time to come."