KUALA LUMPUR, August 5 — Employers have been told that the Immigration Department will no longer have any dealings with them, nor will they be allowed to leave Malaysia if they have not settled fines incurred for hiring illegal workers.

Sunday Star reported that the decision has angered the affected business owners who described the move as unfair and unnecessary. 

Director-general Datuk Seri Mustafar Ali said the decision will come into effect on September 1 and employers with unresolved compounds after the programme to rehire illegal workers comes to an end will be blacklisted.

"This is due to employers who have yet to pay the compound imposed on them for hiring illegal workers,” he was quoted as saying at the department headquarters in Putrajaya yesterday. 

However, employers have also claimed that 100,000 out of 700,000 applications to rehire illegal workers have been rejected due to red tape.

Malaysian Employers Federation executive director Datuk Shamsuddin Bardan said most businesses registered under the rehiring programme are micro-enterprises, making it difficult for them to provide the proper documentation for the approval of their workers’ rehiring application.

He added the authorities should not focus on penalising employers who previously hired illegal workers, or blacklisting those registered under the rehiring programme but have yet to settle the compound.

Since the end of the rehiring programme on June 30, Ops Mega 3.0 has been conducted to crack down on illegal immigrants nationwide. Over 5,444 illegal workers and 135 employers have been arrested since July 1.