26 Mei 2007
FOREIGN workers should not take complaints of being cheated, unfair dismissal and wage disputes to the Immigration Department. They should contact their diplomatic missions in Malaysia on such matters.
Enforcement director Datuk Ishak Mohamed said his department only came into the picture when a foreign worker entered the country illegally or had committed an immigration offence. He said the most the department could do was help the worker get back his passport from the employer.
He agreed that it was easier to arrest 10 foreign workers than one employer.
"Employers quickly engage lawyers and they use technicalities to get themselves off. Employers are smart. When they engage foreign workers, they pay cash.
"Punch cards are under assumed names and when we ask about forged documents or passports, they say the papers have changed hands many times and they don’t know who forged them. So, tell me, how can we catch the employers and prove them guilty?"
Ishak said last year, 158 employers and some 3,000 illegal workers had been charged in court.
