PETALING JAYA, July 30 — The Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) Friday supported the government’s campaign against errant employers harbouring illegal workers.

However, it hoped that workers who were victims of unscrupulous employers would not be unduly penalized.

The government should in fact facilitate and ensure a hassle free passage for these workers to leave the country, its vice president, A. Balasubramaniam said.

He told Bernama that the workers were not at fault if their visas were not renewed because it was the responsibility of the employers to do so.

He was commenting on the current campaign by the immigration department to nab errant employers who were harbouring illegal workers.

He pointed out that the MTUC had brought up the plight of these category of workers to the relevant authorities many times in the past but nothing much was achieved.

“We hope the current campaign will be sustained and the workers treated fairly,” he added.

He said the campaign was long overdue because errant employers had been exploiting innocent workers for a long time.

Latest Human Resources Ministry figures showed that there were some 1.9 million illegal workers in the country. — Bernama