Human rights groups have called for a halt on the ongoing crackdown on undocumented migrant workers, urging the Immigration Department to instead overhaul the existing systems used to legalise workers.

The executive director of migrant rights group Tenaganita, Aegile Fernandez, called the raids “unjust”.

“Sixty to 70 percent of those arrested are human trafficking victims. It is their employers who have failed to register them, and yet it (the Immigration Department) is deporting the weaker party...