Bosses and agents of illegal workers may face compulsory caning
Straits Times, 5 August 1989
BOSSES who knowingly employ more than five illegal immigrants or overstayers will be given three strokes of the cane under a new Bill introduced in Parliament yesterday.
A Ministry of Home Affairs statement yesterday said this mandatory sentence will be meted out together with existing penalties which impose a compulsory jail sentence of at least six months and a fine of up to $6,000 for anyone hiring an illegal worker.
The new Immigration (Amendment No. 2) Bill, which was introduced by Minister
for Law and Home Affairs Professor S.Jayakumar, will also make caning mandatory for traffickers - the agents who bring in illegal immigrants. Caning is at present optional for this offence.
'Root causes of the problem'
On the hiring of illegal workers, the ministry statement said that currently
if an illegal immigrant is found with tools or is engaged in activities which can be inferred as work, the occupant of the premises would be presumed to be an employer unless he can prove otherwise.
It said "this presumption will not apply for the purpose of caning" which will put the burden of proof on the prosecution.
The statement described traffickers and employers who exploit illegal worker s on a large scale as "the root causes of the problem" and said they should be dealt with more severely.
The earlier decision to cane illegal immigrants, it noted, had effectively drawn out 10,000 offenders.
However, the problem will not go away, it said. As labour demand grows, it anticipated that some unscrupulous employers, in trying to dodge the monthly foreign worker levy of $250 per head, will be tempted to hire a small number of foreigners still prepared to work illegally.
Acknowledging that public opinion both in and outside Singapore had pointed out the unfairness of caning workers and not employers, it said the Government had therefore decided to extend mandatory caning to employers and traffickers.
A Home Affairs spokesman also issued a reminder that the final amnesty for foreign workers will expire on Tuesday.
He said even if the new Bill will not come into force till later, employers with illegal workers should ask them to surrender immediately and be repatriated before the amnesty deadline.
