The Road Transport Department (JPJ) has acknowledged that the presence of foreigners without valid driving licences on Malaysian roads is a cause for concern.
Datuk Lokman Jamaan, the senior enforcement director of JPJ, stated that his enforcement team is currently focusing on identifying and apprehending these foreigners during roadblocks.
He emphasized that while foreigners with international driving licences are permitted to drive in Malaysia, the issue lies with those who do not possess the necessary documents to be on public roads.
His comments were made after supervising a special operation targeting motorcycles on the Alor Gajah-Melaka Tengah-Jasin Highway (AMJ) at Bertam Malim on Wednesday night, September 13.
Lokman was questioned about the severity of foreigners, particularly undocumented migrants, riding or driving without valid licences.
On August 10, Melaka JPJ director Muhammad Firdaus Shariff expressed alarm over the high number of Rohingya individuals riding or driving vehicles without valid licences.
He revealed that since the beginning of the year until July, 63 individuals from this community had their vehicles confiscated due to the lack of a licence.
Lokman indicated that JPJ will compile comprehensive statistics on foreigners without valid licences upon the completion of the special operation on motorcycles, which commenced on September 1 and concludes on September 30.
He promised to disclose the exact figures at the conclusion of the operation.
During the operation, JPJ carried out inspections on 140,544 motorcycles across the nation from September 1 to 13, resulting in the issuance of 64,295 notices for various offences.
Lokman highlighted that during this period, 46% of motorcyclists inspected failed to adhere to road safety regulations.
He further revealed that 24,459 motorcyclists were found to lack insurance coverage, 19,928 possessed expired or non-existent driving licences, 4,061 had violated traffic lights, and 2,676 and 259 cases involved pillion riders below the permitted age limit.
A total of 3,111 motorcycles were also confiscated throughout the operation.
Lokman emphasized that the main objective of the operation was to raise awareness of road safety and reduce the number of fatalities among motorcyclists.
In the Wednesday’s operation at AMJ, which involved 65 JPJ officers and personnel, 380 motorcycles were inspected and 33 were confiscated.
Credit: The Star : News Feed
