1 week Ago
Masiung KOTA KINABALU (Oct 17): A Permanent Secretariat needs to be urgently established to curb the increasing number of foreign migrants in Sabah, said Kuamut assemblyman Datuk Masiung Banah. Masiung urged the State Government and Home Ministry (KDN) to join forces and form the relevant secretariat as contained in the 2022 Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) report on foreigners in Sabah. He said according to the report, of the 3.
9 million people in Sabah, 1.9 million are foreign nationals, categorised into four groups: illegal immigrants (PATI), war refugees holding IMM13 and Burung-Burung cards, stateless individuals and foreigners with invalid documents such as through Project IC. “I estimate that there are now more than two million foreign migrants residing in Sabah, as the figure from the RCI reflects only those counted, with many migrants throughout the state still unregistered.
“In comparison, Sarawak has a recorded 2.82 million population but only 159,000 foreign nationals. “So we need to urgently establish this Permanent Secretariat as a pragmatic method to curb the increasing number of foreign migrants in Sabah,” he said in a statement today.
The Parti Gagasan Rakyat Sabah (PGRS) vice president said the issue of foreign migrants in Sabah only arise during election campaigns but no concrete action is taken to solve the problem, leading to more foreign nationals across the state. Masiung said many factors need to be improved on to deal with this issue here, such as the 48 identified smuggling routes from the Philippines and 17 from Kalimantan. He said in the past 40 years, these routes identified by the RCI have not been officially gazetted by the government, allowing foreign migrants to sneak through the border to enter Sabah.
Masiung also pointed out that there are more than 200 small islands, of which 52 in the East Coast are resided upon, that are used as transit for foreign migrants before entering the state. Sabah’s vast sea border of 1,700 kilometers is also a factor contributing to the influx of foreign migrants, especially from the Philippines, he added. “I am not saying that our enforcement unit is not carrying out its duties sincerely until there is an influx of citizens from neighboring countries into Sabah.
“But according to what foreigners who successfully entered the state have said, they have to pay a sum of money to the skipper to evade authorities. “Although this rumour is unverified, a detailed investigation needs to be carried out,” he said..
