30,801 detained in enforcement against illegal work and unauthorised businesses

The Immigration Department has detained 30,801 people in operations against foreigners working illegally and running unauthorised businesses.

Immigration director-general Datuk Zakaria Shaaban said statistics as of 31 May also showed that 2,324 people were found to have abused their passes by going against their stated purposes of entry into Malaysia.

Employers are named in the department's own targets

Zakaria said the department has established annual key performance indicators that emphasise enforcement action against foreign nationals and employers who commit immigration offences, as part of efforts to strengthen compliance with national laws.

He said that in line with the government's emphasis on intensifying action against pass misuse and unauthorised business activity, the department would continue to enhance enforcement operations and strengthen cooperation with ministries, other enforcement agencies and local authorities, so that violations are addressed more comprehensively.

Where this sits alongside other figures this year

This is one of several enforcement updates the department has issued in 2026, and the figures are not directly comparable — each covers a different scope and cut-off date:

• 30,801 detained in operations against illegal work and unauthorised businesses (as of 31 May)
• 17,313 detained across 5,010 enforcement operations, alongside 789 employers arrested for hiring or harbouring workers without valid permits (as of 25 May, reported separately by the New Straits Times)

What the two have in common is the direction of travel: more operations, and enforcement that explicitly includes the employer side.

Why this matters to employers

There are two separate risks here, and they are worth keeping apart.

The first is pass misuse. A worker doing something other than what their pass was issued for is an offence even where that worker entered Malaysia entirely lawfully and holds a valid document. 2,324 people were found in that position in this reporting period alone. In practice this catches ordinary situations — a worker whose pass names one employer but who is helping at a related outlet, or one hired for one role and moved into another.

The second is that the enforcement target is not only the worker. The department has stated that its own performance indicators cover action against employers. That is an unusually direct statement of intent, and it is worth reading literally.

What we would suggest

The gap most businesses actually have is not undocumented workers — it is workers whose documents no longer match what they are doing.

Worth checking on your own site:

• Does the employer named on each pass match the entity the worker actually works for?
• Does the job the worker performs match what the pass was issued for?
• Is anyone working past a pass expiry date while a renewal is "in progress"?

If any of those is uncertain, that is the gap to close first — it is the one enforcement is reporting most often.

Source

The Star, 9 June 2026 — "Over 30,000 nabbed in crackdown against illegal businesses involving foreigners, says Immigration DG" https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2026/06/09/over-30000-nabbed-in-crackdown-against-illegal-businesses-involving-foreigners-says-immigration-dg

Comparison figures: New Straits Times, 27 May 2026 https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2026/05/1449564/updated-public-concern-over-foreigners-persists-despite-17313-illegal

Summarised by JNT Manpower Solutions from the reports cited above. Figures are as reported on those dates.