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KOTA KINABALU—Developers are beginning to feel the pinch with the shortage of workers as an all-out drive to flush illegal immigrants out of Sabah enters its fourth week.
Developers are complaining of a slight slowdown in the progress of their projects, citing a lack of enough workers. Many are reluctant to pay high levies to legalize their foreign workers who might run away.
Sabah Housing and Real Estate Developers Association president Kong Kok Wah said that it was important for the federal government to reduce the levy as the levy charge of between RM1,200 and RM1,400 per worker is too high.
"The lower the levy the better. We will be able to hire legal foreign workers and the development of Sabah will not be slowed down," he said but did not state what sort of a levy charge they were looking at though a 50 percent cut would be acceptable.
The Liberal Democratic Party secretary-general Teo Chee Kang said reducing levy on foreign workers would encourage employers to legalize their workers who entered the state illegally.
Another fear among employers, Teo noted, was that there was no guarantee that workers would stay with the employer for the 12-month period.
Chief Minister Datuk Musa Aman has said that the state had also forwarded the suggestion for a reduction in the levy as a part of a holistic approach towards resolving Sabah's long-standing illegal immigrant problem.
Under Ops Bersepadu, the state is allowing illegal foreign workers -- mostly Indonesians and Filipinos -- to obtain their passports without having to return home. Employers can then apply for their work passes.
Filipinos who are in the state illegally are having difficulty obtaining their passports as they first need to show proof that they are citizens of the Philippines before the document is issued unlike those from Indonesia whose consul offices here issue the passports. Muguntan Vanar-The Star-ANN
