Ways to resolve immigration matters

Source: Star Online, 01/08/2018

I READ with utter disappointment and dejection the letters “Vetting at
certain points not strict enough” and “Onus on Immigration to process
foreigners” (The Star, July 27).
Everyone knows that our Immigration Department is plagued with various
weaknesses and shortcomings which threaten our national security.
These very serious and critical problems require immediate corrective
action and preventive measures. But they have been around for decades
and nothing seems to be done to put an end to them once and for all.
The director-general of Immigration (DGI) may be well aware of these
problems which are basically and fundamentally due to lack of
enforcement. To be fair, he may indeed be in the process of rectifying
all the weaknesses but we cannot wait any longer. He can be sure of
the support from the current no-nonsense government and the rakyat at
large.
The first step the DGI and Home Affairs Ministry must take without any
delay is to take back all immigration matters that were outsourced to
agents, sub-agents and organisations and vendors who claimed they are
providing invaluable services and online user-friendly systems.
image:
https://content.thestar.com.my/smg/settag/name=lotame/tags=all,Demo_Age_65plus_enr
Immigration matters are critical to the nation’s security and hence no
one other than the Home Affairs Ministry and Immigration Department
should in any way handle any of these matters at any level.
If you have inadequate staff or budget for procuring a world-class
system, please ask the Finance Minister and Prime Minister, who would
certainly consider your requests favourably as they too know that
immigration matters cannot be delegated to third parties.
On another matter, we have schemes that allow expatriates to be
brought into the country for jobs that pay as low as RM2,500 per
month. These must be abandoned immediately. As expatriates, they
receive special treatment and because their salary is so low, they do
not pay any taxes. Many employers claim they are unable to hire local
skilled workers and bring in these Category III expatriates for jobs
such as machining technicians. Their claims are false and far-fetched.
The Immigration Department and Home Affairs Ministry must stop
approving expatriate visas for jobs that pay less than RM6,000 per
month and ensure that strict vetting is carried out on the
qualifications and experience of workers hired for these jobs. They
must also ensure that employers provide hard evidence that local
talents are not available for such jobs before approving any request
for workers in these expatriate positions.
It must also be noted that there are cases of employers submitting
forged university degrees and college diplomas of unqualified
expatriates and many end up not working in the industry or jobs they
had applied for originally. This is due to sheer lack of enforcement.