ESSCom focuses on 'rat lanes'

TAWAU: Illegals are warned they will bear the full brunt of the law if they resort to using the 'rat lanes' in the Eastern Sabah Security Zone (ESSZone) to enter Sabah, which are being closely watched.

ESSCom commander Datuk Hazani Ghazali said the security agencies were constantly monitoring the rat lanes from Pulau Sebatik, Tawau to Kalabakan and Long Pasia, Sipitang.used by illegals to sneak in and out of Sabah.

‘'However, their attempts to sneak in will only result in them being nabbed and facing the Malaysian laws when they are detained as the lanes were always being monitored by the security forces,'' he said when contacted by Bernama, yesterday.

He said illegal immigrants used the illegal rat lanes in ESSCom, which were exceedingly numerous, to sneak into and out of Sabah from Indonesia to elude the security forces.

Recently, he said the Malaysian security forces from ESSCom nabbed six Indonesian illegals who sneaked into Sabah using a rat lane in Kalabakan.

“Their action can result in the spread of Covid-19. As such, we have alerted the Health Department to carry out Covid19 screenings on them,” he added.

In the meantime, he said the security forces had also turned away over 20 illegals trying to enter Sabah through Kalabakan in two cases early this month.

“We turned them away immediately and did not allow them to land. This was in order to break the chain of Covid-19 infection and prevent a cluster comprising illegals from being created in the ESSZone,” he said.

Prior to this, he said 10 illegals were quarantined at the Teachers' Training Institute (IPG) Tawau Campus who were confirmed negative of the disease and were referred to the Immigration Department.

Meanwhile, the Tawau Health Office was still trying to locate a foreign plantation worker for a Covid-19 screening after local residents reported him for entering Sabah illegally.