PUTRAJAYA, Feb 4 — The Immigration Department and Wisma Putra are working closely in tackling the issue of illegal Myanmar immigrants not accepted back by their country of origin.

Immigration director-general Datuk Alias Ahmad said although these illegals spoke the Myanmar language and came from a region in that country, there were no identification documents issued to them by the Myanmar government.

"Wisma Putra (Foreign Ministry) is communicating with the Myanmar government to resolve this issue and is hoping for its cooperation to issue travel documents to its people, particularly from the Rohingya, Chin, Kachin and Mon ethnic groups.

"The deportation process is usually made within seven days (of their arrests) but in some cases, the duration is extended due to some problems like the absence of travel documents," he said after a brief handing-over of duty, here, today.

He added that throughout last year, the Malaysian government deported 45,000 illegals to their countries of origin.

Alias also said that 13 employers and 3,000 illegals were arrested out of the 15,000 foreigners checked during the 6P Integrated Operation conducted from January 21.

"The operation will continue until the end of this year or until the government is satisfied that the problem of illegals has been resolved," he added.

Meanwhile, Immigration deputy director-general (management), Aloyah Mamat will be replacing Alias as director-general effective tomorrow.

Alias will be the new secretary-general of the Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Ministry, also from tomorrow. — Bernama