KUALA LUMPUR – The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency and police require additional assets to address the issue of illegal immigrants more effectively, said Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin.
He said this is because smugglers are using various methods and means to bring migrants into the country via “rat lanes”, calling for the matter to be addressed in Budget 2021, to be tabled tomorrow.
“The government is urged to rethink the assets under the Home Ministry. We need additional boats and ships in our arsenal, as well as (assets) on land, because we know these smugglers already have vehicles that are sometimes more sophisticated than ours,” he told the Bicara Naratif programme on Radio Televisyen Malaysia’s TV1 last night.
“Not only new vehicles, but we also wish to have the latest technological devices such as drones, as well as specific radars to discover the rat lanes used by smugglers.”
He said the ministry will address the issue of forged MyKad and travel documents among foreigners by improving the systems under the Immigration and National Registration Departments.
“Right now, applications for things such as visas are all done online, and we need a more sophisticated system to determine whether the person entering the country has a valid passport.
“If we could do it using fingerprint technology before, of course, it can be done through the ‘Digital ID’, so that we can ensure that there is no more forgery.” – Bernama, November 5, 2020
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