Illegal Immigrants Urged to Take Amnesty
Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi assured illegal immigrants that they would not be arrested or persecuted if they left the country voluntarily under an amnesty offer, national news agency Bernama reported.
Abdullah said illegal workers should leave immediately to avoid bottlenecks in the closing days of the amnesty.
Malaysia has said it hopes to evict 400,000 of its estimated 1.2 million illegal foreign workers during the 17-day amnesty that began Friday. Most of the illegal workers are from Indonesia and form the backbone of Malaysia’s construction industry.
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