Warisan wrongly accused of issuing ICs to illegals – Azis

KOTA KINABALU: Allegations by the opposition from Sabah that Parti Warisan Sabah (Warisan) has issued identity cards to illegal immigrants are not true.

Deputy Home Minister Datuk Azis Jamman in refuting the allegations said the problem in Sabah was due to the many cases of unregistered marriages between Sabahans and foreigners.

Because of this, children born to these couples were registered as foreigners as required by Malaysian law, said Azis when replying to Keningau Member of Parliament Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan’s additional question in the Parliament yesterday.

According to Azis, in an effort to resolve the problem, the State Government had proposed that a legalization program be conducted to trace those in this group.

“But sadly this positive step has been politicised by the opposition which had accused (Warisan) of issuing identity cards to illegal immigrants,” he lamented.

Jeffrey had asked the federal government to disclose the steps it would and had taken to resolve the issue of foreign children not being able to enter schools in Sabah.

Azis stressed that the State Government was trying to resolve the problem but was finding it difficult because of the opposition’s wild accusation.

“There are many nonMalaysian children in Sabah and that is why Chief Minster Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal proposed the legalization process in order to help them but instead we are accused of helping illegal immigrants,” he said.

Azis was of the opinion that if there is no political will to help these people, the problem will never be resolved.