KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 17 — Minister of Science and Technology Khairy Jamaluddin pledged today that the government will not detain undocumented migrants who come forward to receive their Covid-19 vaccines.

The coordinating minister for the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme also said the government under the Covid-19 task force (CITF) is also working with the Home Affairs Ministry to contact foreign embassies, international organisations, civil society and non-governmental organisations (NGO) to assist in assuring undocumented migrants of this.

"I think that’s the most important message to give out so that they (undocumented migrants) can come forward freely and that the government will vaccinate them and not detained them,” he said in a press conference today.

Khairy said that for the documented migrant workers, the government has asked employers to give their details to the Home Affairs Ministry and the Human Resource Ministry to coordinate the implementation plan.

He said this includes the list of workers and vaccination centres that will be used to vaccinate them.

"For the foreign workers, it will continue to be a voluntary process,” he said.

Earlier today, Khairy announced that CITF will provide support for the Ministry of Health to ensure the success of the Covid-19 National Immunisation Programme.

He announced that Health deputy director-general (public health) Datuk Dr Chong Chee Keong and Deputy Chief of Army Lt. Gen Datuk Mohammad Ab Rahman will serve as the CITF deputies.

A total of 312,390 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will be flown in as the first shipment on February 21 with the rollout of the programmes will start on February 26.