JPJ looking to root out foreigners on Malaysian roads without valid licences

MELAKA: The Road Transport Department (JPJ) admits that the number of foreigners on Malaysian roads without valid driving licences is a worrying issue.

JPJ senior enforcement director Datuk Lokman Jamaan said his enforcement team’s focus currently was to look out for these foreigners during roadblocks.

“Foreigners with international driving licences are allowed on our roads but we are concerned over those without valid documents to be on public (roads),” he said after overseeing a special operation on motorcycles along the Alor Gajah-Melaka Tengah-Jasin Highway (AMJ) at Bertam Malim here on Wednesday night (Sept 13).

Lokman was asked about the seriousness of foreigners, especially undocumented migrants, riding or driving without valid licences.

On Aug 10, Melaka JPJ director Muhammad Firdaus Shariff said a high number of Rohingya riding or driving vehicles here without valid licences was alarming.

He said 63 individuals from the community had their vehicles confiscated for being on the road without a licence from the start of this year to July.

Lokman said JPJ would obtain the full statistics on foreigners without valid licences at the end of the special operation on motorcycles which began on Sept 1 and ends on Sept 30.

“I will reveal the actual figure on this at the end of this operation,” he said.

He said JPJ nationwide inspected 140,544 motorcycles during the operation from Sept 1 to Sept 13 where 64,295 notices were issued for various offences.

Lokman said that within the period of the operation, 46% of the motorcyclists inspected had failed to comply with the road safety regulations.

He said 24,459 of the motorcyclists had no insurance coverage while 19,928 had their no or expired driving licences while 4,061 had beaten traffic lights, 2,676 and 259 cases of pillion riders below the permitted age limit.

Lokman also revealed that 3,111 motorcycles were also confiscated during the operation.

“Our main objective of holding the operation was to create road safety awareness and reduce the number of deaths among motorcyclists,” he added.

Lokman said 65 JPJ officers and personnel members from here were involved in the Wednesday’s operation at AMJ where 380 motorcycles were inspected with 33 confiscated.