There is a possibility that some of the 62,156 youths who registered themselves as illegal immigrants under the 6P amnesty programme were victims of h

There is a possibility that some of the 62,156 youths who registered themselves as illegal immigrants under the 6P amnesty programme were victims of human trafficking syndicates, Home Minister Datuk Seri Hisham­muddin Tun Hussein said.

A thorough investigation would be carried out to determine their real status, he said.

He said an initial review of the programme indicated that some of the children and youths could be the offspring of illegal immigrants.

“So we are checking whether international human trafficking syndicates are involved.

“The numbers could be higher as the information we have is only on those who had registered voluntarily. There could be a lot more out there but we will start (the investigations) with the facts and figures that are already with us,” he told a press conference after chairing a weekly meeting with state immigration directors yesterday.

Hishammuddin said the registration, which ended on Aug 31, recorded 40,500 children under the age of 12 and 21,656 aged between 13 and 18.

Their actual status had to be determined since foreign workers were not allowed to bring along their dependents, he said.

Hishammuddin said he was also investigating several 6P agents on suspicion of hiring foreigners with a “hidden agenda”.

“Some of them (agents) have foreign shareholders or directors, whether officially or not.

“Some have people with direct links with foreigners and some had taken more money (fees) than what had been stipulated.”

The 6P programme saw 336 companies being appointed as agents to register legal and illegal foreign workers. They were not allowed to charge more than RM300 for each registration.

The programme involves the registration, legalisation, amnesty, monitoring, enforcement and deportation of illegal immigrants.