KOTA KINABALU – Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed has confirmed that there are 1.09 million non-Malaysians present in Sabah.
This is a substantial increase from the 853,600 non-Malaysians recorded in the state in 2010.
The influx of foreigners has contributed to a rapid jump in Sabah’s population. The total population is 3.9 million this year compared to 3.2 million in 2010, 2.6 million in 2000, and just 1.86 million in 1990.
This means that the foreigners now make up 27.9% of the Bornean state’s residents.
Local Sabahans add up to only 2.8 million of the population this year.
In contrast, there are only 159,500 non-Malaysians in Sarawak now.
Mustapa revealed the figures in a written answer to Tuaran MP Datuk Seri Wilfred Madius Tangau in Parliament on Thursday.
He said Sabah’s population growth is higher than Sarawak’s because the high number of non-Malaysians has grown its population to 3.91 million, compared to 2.82 million people in Sarawak as of this year.
The high figure is linked to the mass entry of illegal immigrants in Sabah. The long-standing issue remains a thorn in the side of many Sabahans.
Stateless children, products of integration and inter-marriages, may have also contributed to the figures.
Government estimates show that the number of these children may have increased fourfold over the decades.
The number of migrants in the area is so high that the majority of Sabahans have found it hard to distinguish between locals and migrants now.
Many migrants are now living in the cities – Kota Kinabalu, Tawau and Sandakan – which are located along coastal areas, as illegals migrants mostly enter Sabah via sea routes.
The 2013 Royal Commission of Inquiry on undocumented migrants in Sabah had heard how Project IC, a scandal that saw illegal immigrants being issued identity cards for votes, had propelled the surge in population.
The Vibes recently reported that populations of villages in Sembulan, which are now suffering high crime rates, had increased more than fivefold between 1988 to 1992 due to the entry of foreigners. – The Vibes, December 18, 2020
