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PETALING JAYA (July 25, 2008): Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak, who heads the cabinet committee on illegal immigrants, should consider an amnesty program to let undocumented workers leave on their own free will prior to the full-scale crackdown.

Migrant Care country coordinator Alex Ong said in a statement that there should be a clearly defined time frame for the amnesty.

He was referring to efforts to flush out illegal foreign workers in Sabah which has entered into high gears.

He said the task force should seriously consider the amnesty programme and the re-employment of these undocumented migrant workers who have been made illegal by plantation groups including Felda, IOI, Tabung Haji Plantation and other public listed companies.

"The country'es economy, especially Sabah plantation sector, is greatly dependent on the presence of these undocumented workers to harvest our palm oil," Ong said.

It is also timely for the Malaysian authorities to be transparent and invite the Indonesian and Philippines missions and media to participate in the operations to minimise wrongful reporting of abuses on isolated cases of indiscipline by RELA and enforcement officers, he added.

Ong also said the extensive road blocks and random operations which started last week is a great concern to civil society in Asean because the non-systematic approach to purge out migrant workers could result in rampant abuses as was seen in the 2002 and 2005 Ops Tegas which raised diplomatic tension between Malaysia and its Asean counterparts.

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