Stranded migrants who fail to leave by midnight could face action - Hamzah
Undocumented migrants who fail to leave Malaysia by midnight today at the end of the Immigration Department’s Return Recalibration Programme will be considered as having flouted the law, warned Home Minister Hamzah Zainudin.
Speaking to reporters at Bukit Aman, Hamzah said they include thousands of migrants who were reportedly stranded at various international exit points while waiting for their flight or ferry journeys to Indonesia.
"We have only given them until midnight and those who
Undocumented migrants who fail to leave Malaysia by midnight today at the end of the Immigration Department’s Return Recalibration Programme will be considered as having flouted the law, warned Home Minister Hamzah Zainudin.
Speaking to reporters at Bukit Aman, Hamzah said they include thousands of migrants who were reportedly stranded at various international exit points while waiting for their flight or ferry journeys to Indonesia.
"We have only given them until midnight and those who do not make it, that's a problem. They knew they should have left by today but suddenly all of them wanted to rush to the airport.
"Once midnight has passed they will be deemed as having committed an offence," he added.
Thousands stranded
Earlier today, Malaysiakini reported that thousands of migrants intending to leave under the Return Recalibration Programme - first announced in November 2020 - missed their flight at KLIA2 as they were unable to check-in for departure on time, owing to the large influx of people at the airport.
A similar scene was depicted at the exit points in Johor, where some had been waiting for more than three days for their turn to make the necessary payments to the Immigration Department, but counters were limited to accepting only 100 payments a day.
Various sources have confirmed that thousands of migrants are stranded in KLIA2 in Sepang and Pasir Gudang and Stulang Laut ports in Johor.
When it was pointed out that some of those undocumented migrants could have been victims of unscrupulous agents, Hamzah said: "Why must you argue on their behalf?
"Like I said, anyone who committed an offence, we will take actions, whether foreigners or our own citizens who took advantage of migrants and victimised them."
Hamzah also warned employers against hiring any undocumented migrants, hinting at future large-scale operations to weed out those who failed to leave.
As of Dec 31, 2020, a total of 6,634 operations on undocumented migrants were carried out, while a total of 22,522 undocumented migrants and 387 employers were detained.
In December last year, Hamzah announced that 280,088 foreign workers had applied for the labour recalibration programme and over 120,000 of them were involved in the plantation sector.
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