PUTRAJAYA, March 9 (Bernama) -- The Home Ministry today decided that there is a need to set up a National Database on Foreigners, said Home Minister Hishammuddin Tun Hussein.

The matter was decided at the Meeting of the Main Committee on Improvement in the Management and Monitoring of Foreigners chaired by Hishammuddin today and it would be among the things to be discussed at the Foreigners Management Laboratory meeting.

"The database can ensure that the monitoring and enforcement process can be implemented effectively because the activities of the foreigners throughout their stay in the country can be recorded speedily and can be used by the enforcement agencies at any time for reference," he said in a statement, here Monday.

Hishammuddin said that through the national database, the record on the entry and exit as well as the activities of all categories of foreigners in the country could be unified under the monitoring system.

From the enforcement aspect, he said the database could provide information on the current status of every foreigner including the type of permit and pass and their validity period at any time an operation was carried out by all the enforcement agencies such as the Immigration Department, police, RELA and the local authorities.

On the setting up of the Foreigners Management Laboratory announced by Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin recently, Hishammuddin said his ministry had made the necessary preparations needed to begin the implementation of the laboratory in the near future.

"Further details such as the date, duration and membership of the laboratory would be decided at the Ministerial-Level Meeting On The Implementation of the Foreigners Laboratory which I will chair on March 17," he said.

The establishment of the laboratory aimed to find a holistic solution in tackling issues concerning foreigners particularly to avoid the continued influx of illegal immigrants.

In the same media statement, Hishammuddin said that the Director-General of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), William Lacy Swing, would meet with him Tuesday to discuss several matters concerning human trafficking.

"Among the things to be discussed at the meeting are the proposal to create a IOM branch office in Kuala Lumpur like the one in Jakarta, Bangkok, Manila, Yangon and several other Asean member countries," he said. (BERNAMA)