BINTULU - The Home Affairs Ministry has taken various measures to curb the influx of illegal immigrants into the country and has enhanced the security features in Malaysian Identity Cards to prevent them from being forged. These were answers given in response to oral questions from Bintulu Member of Parliament Dato' Seri Tiong King Sing during a Parliamentary sitting on Monday. Tiong had earlier asked the Home Ministry official how it could tackle the influx of illegal immigrants to the country, and the forged Malaysian Identity Card issue. The Home Ministry said that the fight against illegal immigrants was an on-going exercise. And it attributed the physical geography of Malaysia particularly its long coast line and dense jungles that illegal immigrants used to sneak into the country. The Home Affairs Ministry has also adopted several measures to solve these problems. These included amendment to Immigration Act 1959/1963 last year by imposing whipping, heavier fines on employers and those harbouring illegal immigrants, and instructing all manufacturers and factory operators not to hire illegal immigrants. Other measures included intensifying raiding operation with other enforcement agencies, and to bring all illegal immigrants to the court. Touching on forged Malaysian Identity Cards, the Home Affairs Ministry was of the view that the huge demand in the black market was a factor that attracted syndicates to go into making forged identity cards. The Ministry however had already come up with several effective tactics to deal with the matter. First was the introduction of the high-tech MYCARD featuring security features which are difficult to forge. Until today, the Ministry has yet to receive any report pertaining to forged MYCARD. The computerization of National Registration department and the linkage with the Centralised Data Base (SIREN) and Finger Print Identification System (AFIS) to ascertain the identity of MYCARD holders prevent any chance of the card being forged. The National Registration Act 2001 stipulates that a person convicted of forging identity card will be jailed five years and a fined not more that RM50,000 upon conviction. Temporary receipts of identity cards has a validation period of only two months to prevent forgery.