There are more of them than legal workers and it is cause for concern

The biometric registration exercise for foreign workers in the country, which has been extended until Aug 31, has thrown up a surprise for the Home Ministry.

The latest figures from the exercise have shown that there are more illegals than legal foreign workers in the country.

As of Friday, 2,088,358 foreign wor-kers have registered under the exercise, over half of whom - or 1,135,499 - are illegals.

Small crowd: Foreign workers lining up for the biometric registration at the state Immigration department in Seberang Jaya yesterday.

The move to extend the deadline has come following concerns that even as the original date was coming to an end today, many of the illegals have not come forward.