KUALA LUMPUR, March 22 — A DAP lawmaker claimed today that a temporary card that employers can obtain from the Immigration Department to register undocumented migrants was not a free or straightforward process as reported.

Bukit Mertajam MP Steven Sim said that contrary to the Immigration Department’s announcement last month that the Enforcement Card (E-Kad) was free and did not involve any middlemen, the government revealed Monday in Parliament that employers and migrant workers would have to go through three companies.

"The ‘free’ E-Kad will only be issued after a payment of up to RM800 per worker to one of the super-agents. Subsequently, other costs will have to be paid to complete the rehiring process once the ‘free’ E-Kad is received,” Sim said in a statement.

The lawmaker said he was informed in Parliament that the government has appointed three companies to do the rehiring process: Iman Sdn Bhd, MyEG Bhd and Bukit Megah Sdn Bhd.

"In other words, it is still business as usual at the Immigration Department: well-connected super-agents raking lucrative profits doing paper-shifting jobs for the Immigration Department,” said Sim.

He said the middlemen would make about RM500 million for four months of work as the Immigration Department has estimated that up to 600,000 undocumented migrants would be registered, besides holding close to RM1 billion of levies, charges and fees payable to the government.

"Why can’t the Immigration Department do the rehiring directly just as it is issuing the E-Kad directly? Approval of migrant workers comes from the government, middlemen are only paper-shifters who took advantage of this flawed system to rake hundreds of millions,” said Sim.