Sabah 5P immigration programme ends October 31

The Immigration Department here is carrying out the registration programme for legal foreign workers (Pasah) under the state-level 5P Programme from Oct 3 until 31.

Sabah state secretary Sukarti Wakiman said employers must ensure their workers and dependents were registered through the biometric system provided by the department.

He said workers who did not register through the biometric system by Oct 31 would have to go to the department with their dependents when they needed to renew their working pass.

“Legal foreign workers are those who possess the temporary working visit pass issued by any immigration office in Sabah according to the sectors allowed, such as housemaid, agriculture, plantation, construction, manufacturing and service,” he said in a statement, yesterday.

There were 237,388 legal foreign workers in the state, said Sukarti, who also chairs the state-level 5P programme main committee.

According to him, the response by employers to the programme had not been satisfactory and various efforts were being carried out to intensify the process including outreach programmes in three districts namely Sandakan, Tawau and Lahad Datu where 70,550 plantation workers or 68.67 percent of the total 102,735 plantation workers throughout Sabah, were concentrated.

According to Sukarti, only 48,996 or 69.4 percent of plantation workers had been registered under the Pasah programme.

He said since Oct 17, the Immigration Department had opened seven registration centres for the Pasah programme, which are in Kota Kinabalu (Dewan Sigah, Penampang), Sandakan (Dewan Gum-Gum, Batu 16), Semporna (Dewan Seri Inabah), Keningau (Dewan Arkib Keningau), Kudat (Dewan Tun Mustapha), Sipitang
(Dewan Masyarakat Sipitang) and Ranau (Immigration meeting room). He said the registration centres for Tawau and Lahad Datu would be announced soon.

“Nevertheless, employers with a large number of Pasah employees can contact the nearest Immigration Office for further information or register them directly under the programme,” he said.

– Bernama