Sabah urged to act against Pakistanis

Pakistanis should be rounded up and asked to produce valid visit passes.

KOTA KINABALU: PAS Sabah agrees with Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Richard Malanjum that the Pakistanis are everywhere in Sabah. “Just go to the grocery stores in the villages or the towns, or take a walk near Segama, Sinsuran and Wisma Merdeka, “said PAS Sabah Commissioner III Hamil Ismail. “They are everywhere.”

He added that the Government should take Malanjum’s statement seriously if they want to tackle the illegal immigrant problem in the state.

“As of now, I don’t see any serious efforts coming from the Federal and Sabah Governments, except for establishing the Working Committee, under Huguan Siou Joseph Pairin Kitingan, on the RCI Report.”

He noted that Pairin had already downplayed the importance of his Committee by saying that its purpose was only to collect information and suggestions and not to solve the illegal immigrant problem.

He was commenting on the Chief Judge’s remark and one by Deputy Home Minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaffar that he has directed the Immigration Department, through its Director-General, to strictly examine all Pakistanis who enter Sabah.

Wan Junaidi was quoted as saying in Tawau that the Home Ministry will empower the Integrity Unit in departments under his director. Even so, he’s sure that the number of Pakistanis in Sabah was the work of syndicates run by foreigners.

Malanjum remarked on Wednesday, after hearing the cases of five Pakistani nationals charged with possession of fake travel documents, that the Director-General of Immigration should be held answerable for the problem. He added that Pakistanis in Sabah should be rounded up and asked to produce valid passes. “There are so many of them here. We don’t know whether they hold valid papers.”

Kimma Sabah chairman, Baisul Khan Salman Faris, claimed that the Immigration Department was biased and would target Indian businesses when conducting an operation against illegal immigrants. “They should help legalize illegal immigrants and allow us to employ them as well as the stateless people here in Sabah. The stateless will turn to crime if they cannot be employed. We are not asking for citizenships for these people.”

Baisul conceded that many Indian establishments resorted to hiring illegal immigrants.