IGP Suggests Confining Foreign Workers, Putting Under 24-Hour Surveillance.

Malaysia's police chief has suggested confining foreigners to their work premises and putting them under 24-hour surveillance to prevent crime, reports said. The Inspector-General of Police Musa Hassan said that the move would deter them from getting involved in rising criminal activity, the New Straits Times reported.

"Under the plan, foreign workers, the majority of whom are contract workers, will be placed in their kongsi (workers quarters) at (their) work site and their activities monitored by the contractor even after their working hours," Musa was quoted as saying by the newspaper. He said the workers would have to register with their employers, who are usually building contractors, if they wished to go out during breaks or days off.

"This way, I believe the foreigners will be more afraid to commit crimes as they know the police can locate them," said Musa.

Musa said crimes committed by foreign workers, especially Indonesians, have escalated with about 5,000 criminal acts committed by foreigners last year, which accounted for some two percent of the 232,620 cases recorded. Official statistics have shown that criminal incidents jumped 45.1 percent in three years since 2003.

Musa said that the police would also step up border security to stop the influx of illegal immigrants. "Enforcement at border checkpoints and entry points will be enhanced because it is difficult to control the illegal immigrants' movement once they entered the country," Musa said.

Malaysia is one of the largest importers of foreign labour in Asia. Foreign workers, both legal and illegal, accounted for about 2.6 million of its 10.5 million work force, officials have said.

They supply the workforce needed in Malaysia's agricultural, construction, manufacturing and services sectors. (Channel Newsasia)

***** With the increasing number of criminal acts being attributed to foreigners, foremost among them our Indon brothers, one may be tempted to adopt very strict measures like the above as proposed by the IGP. However I doubt if human rights groups both within and outside the country will be agreeable to such draconian measures which seek to totally limit the movement of foreign workers and subject them to an Orwellian type of surveillance, all because of the acts of a few bad hats.

What do you think? Should we put in place such strict regulations even if it unfairly seeks to punish a majority of the foreigners?
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