KOTA KINABALU – Sabah has formed a Special Committee on Undocumented Foreign Workers and and Foreign Nationals with Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Jeffrey Kitingan appointed as chair.
The commitee is tasked to collect input from law enforcement agencies, industry players, political leaders, and community leaders on how best to deal with undocumented migrants and their dependents in Sabah.
“Both Sabah and the federal government agree that illegal immigrants must be charged and deported immediately,” said Kitingan in a statement today.
“We are currently inundated with the presence of illegal immigrants who have taken up jobs that our citizens do not want.
“They have slipped under our radar. We have no idea where they are, who they are, or what they are up to. If we are not informed of their activities, we are exposing our citizens to security threats as well as health hazards.”
He said a series of meetings are now on the cards to collect stakeholders’ views and a cabinet paper would be drawn up for discussion in hopes for a solution to the problem of migrants in the state.
“I believe we will be able to find the best solutions to this situation after extensive discussions with the relevant stakeholders. I have set a deadline to present the cabinet paper in three months from today.
“I hope the outcome will be acceptable to all Sabahans,” he said.
In April last year, Sabah Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin announced the state-level technical committee to find solutions to the issue of migrants.
He noted that the committee has two sub-committees, namely on security and on migrants and foreign workers, which are chaired by former Sabah police commissioner Datuk Hazani Ghazali and former Dewan Rakyat speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia respectively.
The technical committee is chaired by Bung Moktar himself.
On January 24 this year, Bung Moktar announced a census to collect accurate data on the number of migrants in the state. He announced that the Special Data Collection Programme would commence this month.
He also announced that Smart Sabah Corporation Sdn Bhd will exclusively handle data collection.
Six days ago, federal Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin had announced after attending the Sabah Migrant Management Committee in Putrajaya that the federal government would decide on the Sabah government’s proposed “Kad Warga Asing” migrant’s card to document migrants in the state.
Explaining that the migrant cards do not grant Malaysian citizenship, but merely identify non-citizens, Hamzah was optimistic that the proposal can be approved in three months’ time.
The statement drew criticism within the political circles in Sabah, forcing Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor to clarify that Kad Warga Asing is merely a recommendation at this stage. He said that the proposal still has to undergo fine-tuning.
This led to the creation of the Special Committee on Undocumented Foreign Workers and Foreign Nationals announced by Kitingan today.
Hajiji noted that Sabah had proposed to the federal government two types of documents, the Kad Warga Asing and Kad Pekerja Warga Asing (Foreign Workers’ Card), aimed at standardising all documents, namely the IMM13, Sijil Banci (population census certificate) and the Kad Burung-Burung issued by previous governments.
The cards function in a similar way to the Temporary Sabah Card proposed by the previous Pakatan Harapan federal government to Sabah back in 2020.
The PSS was heavily opposed by the political parties who have since taken over the helm of the Sabah government. – The Vibes, February 16, 2022
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