Sin Chew Daily

The coronavirus outbreak continues to worsen and it appears that the many different versions of MCOs have failed to effectively contain the spread of the virus. Vaccination is still our best bet to win this battle in hope of achieving the herd immunity goal as soon as possible.

The national immunization program is being carried out at a much faster rate at this moment with more than 150,000 doses administered in a single day. We should see the light at the end of the tunnel soon if everything goes on smoothly as planned.

There is nevertheless one big factor hat we must not overlook: the enormous army of undocumented migrant workers!

In other words, we cannot bypass the illegal foreign workers in our strategy to fight the virus.

There are an estimated two to three million illegal foreign workers scattered all around this country. Imagine they roam freely in our streets without getting vaccinated.

However, as these people do not hold valid papers, they have always averted the authorities' round-up operations and it is simply impossible to get them to show up on their own for vaccination.

In view of this, science, technology and innovation minister Khairy Jamaluddin has repeatedly urged these illegal foreign workers to show up for vaccination with the government promise they will not be arrested.

While this promise may help allay some of the fears of illegal migrant workers, home minister Hamzah Zainudin seems to sing a different tune, arguing that these people will not be allowed to receive the COVID-19 vaccines as they do not have identification papers and the authorities will continue to conduct raids on illegal foreign workers during the current nationwide lockdown.

Such contradictory voices within the government have spawned tremendous confusion among Malaysians, not knowing which way the government is actually headed to.

It has long been proven that such conflicting anti-virus measures will not produce any positive results. Khairy said in Wednesday's press conference that he will discuss this with the home minister.

The authorities have come under attack for rounding up illegal foreign workers during the nationwide lockdown, as such a move will only force them into hiding and not to show up for vaccination, posing severe challenges to the country's battle against the virus.

In addition, mass arrest of illegal foreign workers will also result in overcrowding at existing detention centers, making them potential sites of new infection clusters.

Such concern is by no means unfounded. Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) president Subramaniam Muniandy has said the operation will only send illegal migrants into hiding, and hopes the authorities will look into this seriously.

We need to stress here that even if the government stops arresting illegal foreign workers because of this, it doesn't mean these people are allowed to stay in this country illegally.

It is completely acceptable for the authorities to round up these illegals but as we have a much bigger war to fight at this juncture, anything that will bog down our progress in this battle should be best avoided.