Kota Kinabalu: Former Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Christina Liew
(pic) welcomed the announcement by Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin that there will be no compromise in dealing with illegal immigrants in Sabah.
She said Malaysians in Sabah want to see tangible results, and look forward to firm action on the part of the Federal Government to resolve this longstanding issue plaguing the State.
"We hope the announcement is not just another 'promise' in view of the forthcoming 15th General Election. The Federal Government must prove its sincerity in wanting to help Sabah deport the thousands of illegal immigrants back to their countries of origin. This can be achieved by making good on the announcement.
"Otherwise, to say 'there will be no compromise on illegal immigrants' may sound like a cliche because we have been hearing this common expression from national leaders for decades since the influx of so-called economic refugees and migrants in the seventies.
"Words must be equated with concrete action to make what is intended happen for the good of Sabah," the Api Api Assemblywoman said in a statement, Wednesday.
Liew, who is also Tawau MP, was commenting on Hamzah's announcement in Sabah on Tuesday that the Home Ministry and the Sabah State Government have decided to take firm action and will no longer compromise in dealing with illegal immigrants in the State.
The Federal Minister had also said the move would include deporting them from Sabah as what had been done to over 600,000 Filipino and Indonesian illegal immigrants since 1990 until this month.
Liew's concern stems from the Statistics Department's revelation this week that it is estimated that the State's population in 2020 will be 3.91 million, including more than one million non-citizens.
She said based on media reports, apart from being crime perpetrators, illegal immigrants were known to be carriers of diseases like AIDS, hepatitis, tuberculosis and malaria.
"Yes, Sabahans also have these diseases but the rates of disease prevalence are higher in the transient population than those among the local population.
"As such, it is a great challenge, if not impossible, to control these diseases from spreading from illegal immigrants to the local population because they are difficult to trace," Liew pointed out.
More importantly, she said, we won't be able to control the spread of Covid-19 unless the relevant authorities stop these undocumented people from coming into the State.
