Langkawi folks concerned over influx of illegal immigrants
Published on: Thursday, May 14, 2015
Langkawi: The people of Langkawi have expressed concern over security on the island following the arrival of more than 1,000 Bangladeshi and Rohingya illegal immigrants earlier this week. Their concern was expressed not only during field interviews conducted Wednesday but also on the social media, and they generally wanted more effective measures to be taken to curb the entry of the illegal immigrants. Kampung Kuala Temoyong Village Security and Development Committee chairman Khalid Othman, 47, said the mass arrival of the immigrants was not the first to have occurred on the island as there had been several incidents before.
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Even though there had not been any incident of the immigrants being hostile so far, he said, the enforcement agencies entrusted to guard Malaysian waters should be more proactive to prevent future landings of such immigrants. "It is fortunate that none of these illegal immigrants is hostile but we never know, in the future, some might be and we won't have a good night's sleep here," he said. Kampung Kuala Temoyong is on the south-west of Langkawi and was one of the landing points of the illegal immigrants last Monday. The other landing point was a wave breaker near Pasir Bedengung beach on the west of the island. Recalling the incident which occurred in the wee hours, Khalid said that on reaching the shore, the illegal immigrants split into smaller groups and ran towards the jungle near the village, apparently to avoid detection by the enforcement personnel.
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"My fellow villagers informed me that they have found footprints and personal belongings of the illegal immigrants and the trails led the villagers to where they were hiding. He said a few hundred were rounded up and kept at an open place in the village before they were handed over to the police, who later brought the immigrants to the district police headquarters here.
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"Until today, we are on our toes as we believe there could be some more (immigrants) out there in the jungle," he said. Khalid's concern was shared by another villager, Shukor Ismail, who claimed that at least 20 illegal immigrants, including children, could still be hiding in the jungle on a hillside near the village. "We have seen bite marks on the fruits of the trees that we have planted and even heard children crying at night in the jungle," he said, as he pledged to assist the enforcement agencies to track down the remaining illegal immigrants.On the social media, a Facebook wall on Langkawi was flooded with comments from the locals who wanted the authorities to curb the influx of illegal immigrants to the island. One Sofiah Hussin suggested that soldiers be deployed to guard the Langkawi shoreline, while Ong Sara said the taxes collected by the Malaysian government were meant to improve the livelihood of Malaysians and not take care of those who entered the country illegally. A post by one Pen Biru, meanwhile, questioned what was described as the lax attitude of the authorities in monitoring Malaysian waters and asked how prepared the authorities were to handle armed illegal immigrants. Following the arrest of the illegal immigrants, Langkawi Police Chief Supt Harrith Kam Abdullah said the police were on the lookout for any possible mass influx in the near future as they had received information on that possibility.He said the resources in the enforcement agencies, comprising the Police, Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA), Immigration Department and the People's Volunteer Corps (Rela), would be combined to guard against this possibility. "We are exercising caution because we have information that more illegal immigrants may try to land in Langkawi," he said.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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