KUALA LUMPUR: The Home Ministry (KDN) is working to facilitate the process of employers hiring foreign workers through the Immigration Department Workforce Recalibration programme, said its minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin (pic) on Thursday (Dec 2) night.

       He said the matter was brought to the Cabinet to request that the Immigration Department be given the authority to approve 70 per cent of the total applications by the employers and the full approval is only given after receiving confirmation from the Human Resource Ministry (MOHR).

       "Previously, the employers need to obtain approval from MOHR and due to many applications, it had caused delays,” he said during an interview on the Ruang Bicara programme discussing KDN’s Malaysian Family Aspirations on Bernama TV.

       In the meantime, Hamzah said the improvement of the e-visa programme to 35 countries compared to 10 countries previously, had received good feedback from foreign chambers of commerce.

       He added with the system, expatriates from the countries involved could get an immigration sticker upon landing compared to 30 days previously.

       Meanwhile, when met after the talk show, Hamzah said the Home Ministry would focus more on improving border control by using high-tech assets after the key performance indicators (KPIs) for the first 100 days of the Home Ministry were achieved.

       He added this was to address issues such as the entry of illegal immigrants, human trafficking and trafficking drugs or goods to evade taxes.

       "This is a long-term and comprehensive plan by the ministry,” he said. - Bernama