The government now says the final deadline for illegal migrant workers to return home is Feb 28. This is long overdue. It does not auger well for our government's credibility that the deadline is postponed time and time again.

It may give the wrong idea to the illegal immigrants that our authorities are not serious in their work and will bend over backwards to accommodate the orders of foreign countries.

While a majority of the illegal workers come here to earn an honest living to feed their families at home, there are also some bad hats that do not respect our laws and commit heinous crime for easy money.

It would be good to that after March 1, only genuine foreign workers with clean records be allowed in to work in this country. Hopefully, our enforcement officers can then do a better job in preventing illegal immigrants from coming in illegally through our porous borders.

The government should also be firm and fair to our local workforce who seem to be sidelined when job opportunities are given to the foreign workers due to the latter's cheaper cost. Not to mention that foreign workers can be easily exploited since they are not covered by labour laws which protect local workers form the captains of the industries.

One can read in the news on how many illegal workers have not been paid their dues due to their masters exploiting their illegal status in this country. As a result, some of them resort to petty crime to feed their family.

At the other extreme, one can also hear on the streets of how foreign workers are relieved of their money by bogus enforcement officers on the prowl.

In the long run, for our country not to be swamped by illegal immigrants or foreign workers who clog our roads, space, schools and health facilities, the government should encourage local unemployed youths to fill in their places.

This is much better than these youths just hanging around ('lepak') which, in turn, will also lead to a lot of social ills.