Published on: Friday, July 30, 2010 |
Kota Kinabalu: Democratic Action Party (DAP) on Thursday said the illegal immigrant problems in Sabah has been a thorn in the flesh for many decades but that both the Federal and State governments seem less than enthusiastic in solving it.
Its Sabah Chairman Dr Hiew King Cheu said there is even a proposal to allow illegal immigrants to be legalised as foreign workers in Sabah.
He said many illegal immigrants had become "Malaysians" through both dubious and legal means and their numbers are in the hundreds of thousands.
"Many books and figures have been published on it but no action has ever been taken," he said.
Recently, he said the government announced that they are issuing IMM13 documents to children of the refugees holding the IMM13 certificates and said the new number is about 85,000 or more.
"The question is why do we still allow them to stay on when Southern Philippines is peaceful?" he asked.
Referring to the strangulation case in Tawau on Wednesday where a 54-year-old lady was tied up and murdered by two illegal immigrants, he said it was a true, sad and hard fact.
He said the duo was caught while trying to board a boat to go home to their country at the jetty.
"Now, we can see how serious the problem is and how easy it is to enter and exit from the state Sabah.
Dr Hiew said it was pointless to nab them and place them at the temporary detention centres (Rumah Merah) as well as provide them with free food, health care and then deport them home in air-conditioned coaches with escorts and free trip back to their home country.
"They could easily be back in Sabah within two days."
He said the country is spending millions of ringgit doing something that is hopeless and yet these people keep coming.
"The question is, why can't we stop them from coming in and why have we failed in the deportation exercise?
"Why do we have to legalise these illegals? Are we inviting more to come into Sabah?" he asked.
Dr Hiew said that if Sarawak could effectively control and stop illegal immigrants entering into their state and maintain a steady growth in their population,"Éwhy can't Sabah do the same?"
He said the government should tighten up security at the borders security by closing to prevent from easy entry by the illegal immigrants.
He said Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman being the head of Sabah Security Committee should be held responsible if this ruling is not strictly imposed.
