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mid the confusion of procedures and fees for Malaysia’s amnesty program for migrant workers, Indonesian permanent residents in Malaysia have reportedly been offered a Malaysian citizenship identity card.

“There are offers of Malaysian citizenship identity cards addressed to Indonesian permanent residents amid [the implementation of] the amnesty program,” Migrant Care Malaysia executive director Alex Ong posted on the Amnesty 6P Malaysia page on Facebook on Tuesday.

He said blue identity cards that were on offer would bump up Indonesian permanent residents’ status, but “the status of Indonesian citizenship will be stripped”.

Permanent residents hold red identity cards, while Malaysian citizens carry blue cards.

The Malaysian government began registering illegal migrant workers by recording their fingerprints on Monday under the amnesty program, which aims to control the number of foreigners seeking menial jobs unwanted by Malaysians.

The Malaysian government has withdrawn criticism due to its lack of clarity about the program, leading to the presence of brokers, bogus agencies and appointed agencies who charge extra fees.

“Indonesian migrant workers should not be tempted by the offer, which is untrue and carries high risk,” Ong told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday, adding that there were about 300,000 Indonesian permanent residents in Peninsular Malaysia alone.

He said he did not know how much Indonesian permanent residents would have to pay for a blue identity card today, but in the early 1990s something similar happened, and blue identity cards cost between RM 5,000 (US$1,682) and RM 10,000.

News portal malaysiakini.com reported on Tuesday that woman who held a red identity card attained Malaysian citizenship less than four hours after its previous report that she appeared as a newly registered voter in the Election Commission (EC) online verification system while she was still registered as a permanent resident in the National Registration Department (NRD) online system.

Permanent residents do not have the right to vote.

Less than four hours later, the woman, identified as Mismah, appeared in the same NRD system as a citizen and had collected her blue identity card, the news portal reported.

Allegations of foreigners being illegally registered as voters to shore up support for certain political parties have been continually raised by opposition parties, but constantly denied by the EC, it reported.

“I think the list of PR names in the NRD’s website was the old one and not updated,” EC chairperson Abdul Aziz Yusof told malaysiakini.com.

He reiterated that only Malaysian citizens could apply to register as voters.

“[Permanent residents] are not allowed to vote unless the Home Ministry has approved their application for Malaysian citizenship. Otherwise, their application to register as voters will be automatically rejected by the EC screening system after checking their status with NRD Agency Link-Up System [Alis],” he said as quoted by malaysiakini.com.

Head of information, social and cultural affairs at the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Suryana Sastradiredja, said he had heard about the offer but he doubted that such deals were really taking place, as people with red identity cards were generally older, and permanent residents were currently not at risk of being deported.

“It is too early to offer blue identity cards at this moment because no one is being forced to return home. What happens now is that [Indonesian migrant workers] can return home voluntarily if they wish,” he told the Post.