Kota Kinabalu: The 5P registration exercise that recorded a total of 161,370 illegal immigrants covered about 85 per cent of some 200,000 illegal workers residing in Sabah based on the 2010 Census Population in Malaysia.Sabah Immigration Director Mohd bin Mentek said the Department is pleased with the figure registered in the exercise from July 18 to Aug. 10 although it fell short of 100 per cent."Based on the 2010 Census Population, there were about 800,000 non-Malaysians living in the State. About 600,000 of them included legal workers, expatriates and foreigners who married locals here while the remaining 200,000 are illegal workers.
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"But our registration exercise has listed 161,370 illegals in 24 days while the remaining ones might have returned home and could not be involved in the exercise."Nonetheless, we are happy with such figure (161,370) that signed up for the exercise," he told a press conference after chairing the Department's monthly gathering at the Federal Administrative Complex, along Sulaman road, Thursday.
He was responding to Sunday's statement by Liberal Democratic Department (LDP) Youth Chief Chin Shu Ying in the Daily Express who cited the 2010 population and housing census in Malaysia that 889,779 out of 2,330,779 non-Malaysians in the country are living in Sabah.According to Mohd, there were four regularisation exercises in Sabah for three months each in 1997, 1998, 2008 and 2009. He said the latest 5P registration exercise fared better than the two regularisation exercises in 2008 and 2009.
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"In 2009, the exercise registered an average of 54,000 illegals per month while the one in 2008 registered 161,747 illegals per month."In comparison to the 5P registration exercise, we registered 161,370 in just 24 days. Thus the registration rate for 5P was better than the two years," he said. The 5P relate to Registration, Amnesty, Monitoring, Enforcement and Deportation.
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To a question, Mohammad said Sabah was only implementing the 5P programme so as to prevent more foreigners from coming to Sabah and be legalised workers here.He said the 5P requires illegal immigrants who register to return to their countries before they could return to work in Sabah.Also, he said, the registration of illegals using the biometric system would prevent them from changing their identities as the system would be able to trace their entry to Sabah and leaving the State."Employers must lodge reports with the Immigration Department if any of their legal workers absconded because the Department can shorten their work permits. However, there would be no refund of payment."But if legal workers leave to work with another employer, then the new employer should inform us so that we can address any arising problems with the previous employer," Mohammad said.He said the Department would also register 237,000 legal workers recorded in the 2008 and 2009 exercises, by using the biometric system. The registration would begin early October and is expected to take less than a month.
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"We have received full cooperation from the Malaysian Palm Oil Association (MPOA) and East Malaysia Palm Oil Association (EMPA) to arrange for the registration of their legal workers as most of them are working in plantations."We will go to Sandakan, Lahad Datu and Tawau and select one plantation in each district as a registration centre. On the second week, we will implement the same registration process in nine other districts in Sabah," he said.
