Home Affairs minister Datuk Seri Mohd Radzi Sheikh Ahmad announced government plans to round up between 300,000 and 500,000 irregular immigrants through a nationwide operation involving Rela corps. The minister emphasized that both the workers and their employers would be taken to court.
Malaysian authorities intensified their search for 60 Filipino and Indonesian detainees who escaped from the Menggatal detention center in early April amid a commotion that ensued after a female detainee was prevented from taking her daughter to a hospital. A total of 73 detainees managed to escape from the center but 13 Filipinos have since been recaptured. The escapees took advantage of the ongoing riot by scaling the wire-mesh security fences. Meanwhile, Philippine Ambassador to Malaysia Victoria Lecaros is coordinating with Malaysian authorities to ensure that the human rights of the Filipino escapees are upheld and that humanitarian treatment is extended to some 1,173 Filipino irregular immigrants, including women and children, still in detention in Sabah. In turn, Home Affairs minister Datuk Seri Mohd Radzi Sheikh Ahmad has asked the help of the Philippine Embassy in speeding up the repatriation process for Filipino irregular immigrants in Sabah. Datuk Musa Aman, Sabah’s Chief Minister, also asked the guards at the detention center to show more compassion to detainees.
In a related development, Sabah’s State Commissioner of Police, Datuk Mangsor Ismail, said that more irregular immigrants could be detained if the police did not have to worry about how many would fit in the detention centers. Mangsor also said that a speedier processing of the detainees’ repatriation would also be of great help in freeing up room for more detainees.
Five Filipino domestic workers and four men, including three Pakistanis and a Nepalese, were arrested following a raid at Liquid De Disco on 9 April for failing to show proper travel documents. During the raid, the police found that 60 of the 86 people inside the disco were foreign workers from Pakistan, Indonesia, Nepal and the Philippines.
The newly created maritime enforcement agency has arrested seven crewmembers of three Vietnamese trawlers on charges of encroachment. They were arrested off Kuala Terengganu. The trawlers and the fishing equipment seized by agency would be turned over to local fishing authorities.
Tawau Member of Parliament Shim Paw Fatt urged Sabah to consider setting up a commission of enquiry to study the unusual increase in the state’s population between 1980 and 1990. Shim said that since 1970 unauthorized immigrants holding forged identity cards and IMM13 documents have been entering Sabah. He called on the present government to resolve the issue to be fair to Sabah’s future generation.
Malaysian Prime Minster Abdullah Ahmad Badawi assured the public that despite his decision to scrap the planned building of a bridge across the Johor Strait, the Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) complex in Bukit Chagar would not be underutilized. He said the complex would replace the old CIQ at the Johor causeway, which could be refurbished for other purposes. He made the statement in response to the concern expressed by Johor residents that the complex was redundant and a waste of money now that the bridge project had been shelved.
Sources: “Nationwide operation to nab illegals soon," New Straits Times, 3 April 2006; “More illegals could be roped in: Police," Daily Express, 4 April 2006; V. Shuman, “Disco-dancing maids nabbed for not having documents," New Straits Times, 10 April 2006; “12 escapees re-arrested," New Straits Times, 10 April 2006; “Humane treatment for Pinoys in KL assured," Manila Bulletin, 11 April 2006; Arman Gunsika, “Sabah called on to probe ‘unusual’ increase in population," Borneo Bulletin, 12 April 2006; AP, “Malaysian police hunt Filipino illegals who escaped," INQ7.net, 12 April 2006; AP, “Sabah intensifies hunt for escapees," Borneo Bulletin, 12 April 2006; “Show some compassion, Sabah CM urges guards," The Star, 13April 2006; Vinita Ramani, “Johor CIQ won’t be wasted," Today, 14 April 2006; “Help us repatriate illegals," The Star, 14 April 2006; “Maritime agency makes first arrests," The Star, 14 April 2006