In Gelang Patah, Johor immigration officers have broken up a group committing temporary work permits fraud for foreign workers.
Baharuddin Tahir, the head of state immigration, said that the department had arrested four men from Bangladesh, Nepal, and a Bangladeshi who lives permanently in Malaysia.
“We also seized four Indian passports, a computer, a printer, six cell phones, what we think were fake travel documents and permits, and RM320 in cash,” he said in a statement released on 8 October.
He said that a Bangladeshi ran the group involved in this fraud. They forged travel papers, plane tickets, e-visas, and services for registering with the labor department for the past year, making tens of thousands of ringgit.
Baharuddin also told people to tell the officials about any information or problems they had with foreigners.
In Malaysia, foreigners can’t work without a work permit because the country has work passes and programs called Employment passes. The types of passes depend on the type of job and the length of time worked.
Employment Pass is the most common type of Malaysian work permit for foreign workers. It enables them to take up employment under a contract in a Malaysian company.
To employ foreign workers, the employers need to get approval through the Expatriate Committee to hire an employee and obtain their visa. You need to have a specific skill set to fit into technical or managerial level jobs.
It is divided into three categories, based on monthly salary and duration of the work contracts:
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Category I: Those with a monthly salary of at least RM10,000 and a 5-year work contract.
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Category II: Those with a monthly base salary of above RM5,000 and a work contract of up to 2 years.
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Category III: Those with a monthly salary between RM 3,000 and RM 5,000 and a work contract of up to a year or less.