Registration of foreign workers nothing to do with ICs – Azis

KOTA KINABALU: Deputy Home Minister Datuk Azis Jamman has reiterated that the state government's plan to register foreign workers has nothing to do with the distribution of identification cards to foreigners.

He pointed out that Chief Minister Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal's main objective in registering these workers was to identify those who were currently working in the state illegally.

“(If) we register the total number of foreign workers, we (will) know where they work,¨ he told reporters when met at the soft launch of the Sabah Job and Entrepreneur Fair 2018.

He stressed that most of the foreign workers are not subjected to tax by the government and that no levy is being paid by their employers.

“This is very important, I have to explain this - when we conduct this regularisation programme, we would record the person's fingerprint and retina; we will carry out a facial recognition.

“In fact, I even suggested that we should record their blood samples,¨ Azis said.

He said some of the foreigners would change names to prevent from getting caught by the law. However, once they have all been registered, they will not be able to do so.

“For us to solve the illegals problem in Sabah, we must make sure that they are registered as foreign workers,” Azis asserted.

Separately, on the recent criticisms thrown towards him for his comment on the Sedition Act, Azis asserted that he had never agreed with the use of the infamous Act on Umno Supreme Council Datuk Lokman Noor Adam's brother.

When the media asked him to comment on the arrest, Azis clarified that he had merely told the former that the Sedition Act had yet to be repealed.

“Basically, I have I never said I have agreed when the police used the Sedition Act on (Datuk) Lokman Noor Adam's brother. I have never said that.

“What I was saying was that this Act was still there and it had not been repealed. (Therefore), it is still a valid Act – same goes to SOSMA, POTA and Anti-Fake News Act, these acts are still there,” he said.

He admitted that he himself was shocked when the police decided to use the Sedition Act and that he had personally met with the IGP to t discuss the matter.