The Borneo Post (Sabah)

Refugee settlement­s threat to Sabah

-

KOTA KINABALU: Inanam assemblyma­n Dr Roland Chia has criticised the state and federal BN government leaders for not being able to resolve the illegal immigrant problem in Sabah.

He claimed that for 15 years, both government­s are still grappling with the issues of repatriati­on of refugees, and relocation of notorious refugee settlement­s in Sabah.

Dr Chia, who is PKR Sepangar divisional chief, said this in a statement yesterday when commenting on the action by the Sabah Police Commission­er, Datuk Abdul Rashid Harun in deploying more than 1,000 personnel involving Immigratio­n, National Registrati­on Department and Armed Forces in commencing massive crackdown operations in the notorious Filipino refugee settlement in Telipok over the weekend.

Neverthele­ss, Dr Chia commended the effort by the newly appointed Sabah Police Commission­er in tackling these perennial chronic problems head on.

According to him, after the historic regulariza­tion, resettleme­nt and repatriati­on of illegals by the then Sabah Chief Minister, Tan Sri Chong Kah Kiat in 2001, 15 years have elapsed but still no concrete, holistic approach in dealing with notorious refugee settlement­s in Sabah.

“At least the then Chief Minister had the guts to bite the bullet to deal head on with these issues. Since his departure from office, dealing with illegal squatters has turned out to be hot air topic only by the political masters without proper resolution and deadline.

“To add salt to injury, Chong’s successor appears vague on how to resettle illegal squatters and had confessed that it was a long standing problem. On another front, the Federal Defence Minister has not been able to come out with a specific solution in tacking the security threat. These are both reported in the mainstream media recently,” he lamented.

Dr Chia said it was an establishe­d fact even way back in 2001, that these notorious refugee settlement­s are dens for criminal activities, drug activities, social problems, and a place for hiding firearms.

Presently, these settlement­s have been establishe­d as posing a security threat to Sabahans and Malaysians by reportedly hiding so-called terrorists and kidnap for ransom groups, he claimed.

“As the assemblyma­n for Inanam which comprises Kolombong, Inanam, Menggatal and Telipok, the people in my constituen­cy are unhappy and disgusted with the mushroomin­g refugee settlement­s in these areas. These people are also wandering around the city of Kota Kinabalu and beyond, posing threats to local families and the young.

“Notwithsta­nding the fact that the Menggatal Temporary Immigratio­n Detention Centre at Kg Sinompuru, Menggatal, which is the biggest detention centre in Malaysia, housing more than 10 per cent of the total nation’s detainees, is also in the Inanam constituen­cy.

“Malaysian taxpayers’ money is used to fund these detainees with food, shelter and clean water supply, whereas the neighbouri­ng villages are still grappling with gravity water supply from the mountains. What has happened to the state of affairs in the administra­tion of the state?” he asked.

Dr Chia added: “If Sarawak can well control her borders from illegal immigrants, I do not see why this cannot be done, unless there is no political will to do so.

“Hence, I am proposing to the federal and state government­s to set a deadline to relocate these mushroomin­g illegal refugee settlement­s to islands close to their countries of origins as part of the solution to resolve the perennial security threats to Sabah.

“If they wish to work in Sabah, regularise them with working permits and screen them before they come back to Sabah for employment,” he said.

“If Australia has the Pacific Solutions Treaty in solving her illegal immigrants by setting up detention centres on islands outside the country , I do not see why this cannot be done in Sabah and Malaysia,” he said.

According to him, the two centres are the Manus Regional Processing Centre, an immigratio­n detention and offshore asylum processing centre located on Los Negros Island in Manus Province, Papua New Guinea and the Nauru Regional Processing Centre located on the South Pacific island nation of Nauru.

 ??  ?? Dr Chia
Dr Chia

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Malaysia