FCAS lauds move to tackle perennial illegals issue

KOTA KINABALU: The Federation of Chinese Associations Sabah (FCAS) hopes the federal government could fully support and assist the Sabah Special Committee to address the perennial illegal immigrants issue.

Its president, Tan Sri T.C Goh said this is necessary as this perennial and thorny issue has been plaguing the state for many decades, and with the number of illegal immigrants continuing to increase over the years, it has become a serious threat to state security and job opportunities for bona fide Sabahans, besides posing serious threat to public health, as evident in the emergence of many Covid-19 clusters in squatters which are predominantly occupied by illegal immigrants, in the past one year.

“Hence, the government, both at federal and state level, must step up efforts to effectively tackle this perennial issue once and for all,” he said.

Goh, who is also president of the Federation of Chinese Associations Malaysia (Huazong) said this while welcoming and supporting the statement of Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin on Thursday, that the Sabah government will address the problems of illegal immigrants through the State Level Technical Committee which was formed to find solutions to the issue.

Bung also explained that the technical committee chaired by him is further divided into two committees, namely, the Security Committee and the Illegal Immigrants and Foreign Workers Committee. The Security Committee is chaired by Sabah Police Commissioner, Datuk Hazani Ghazali while the Illegal Immigrants and Foreign Workers Committee is chaired by Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia.

Goh also concurred with Bung that the issue of illegal immigrants, foreign workers and security at the state’s borders is a long outstanding matter which requires a concrete and integrated effort from all quarters, including federal and state leaders and the public, to fully resolve it.

A member of the State Economic Advisory Council, Goh underscored that while it was an undeniable fact that foreign immigrants or illegal immigrants had contributed to the state’s development and economic growth, especially in terms of labour force, nonetheless, the government must always strive to place the long term interest of the nation and its people first.

He noted that, while the National Security Council (NSC) statistics revealed that between 1990 and 2019, Sabah had deported 590,972 illegal immigrants, the number was nonetheless far less than the present number of illegal immigrants who are still present in the state.

Previous official statistics revealed that out of Sabah’s 3.7 million population, one-third are illegal immigrants.

Besides, Sabah is also long plagued by the issue of children of illegal immigrants who were born in the state, who are popularly known as ‘stateless children’. Like their parents, after deportation, these stateless children too always managed to find their way back to Sabah, through the rat lanes. Sabah’s porous borders coupled with too many islands providing good hideouts, has made it tougher for the enforcement agencies to tackle the problem.

Goh also lamented that, for many years, the illegal immigrants issue has been a sensitive political issue for both federal and state governments, besides being made a political ‘bargaining chip’ by politicians from both sides of the divide, during election time, the promises to fully resolve the issue nonetheless remained unfulfilled till this day.