KOTA KINABALU: The President of the Parti Warisan Sabah, Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal, has expressed concern that the Foreign Workers Pass given to foreign workers (digital documents) in Sabah could be misused as supporting documents to help these workers apply for Malaysian citizenship.
Mohd Shafie, who is a member of the Parliament for Semporna, said this was because, according to Article 19 of the Federal Constitution, those who have been in the country for more than 10 years are eligible to apply for Malaysian citizenship.
“We don’t want this to happen, and I hope the government pays attention so that this Foreign Workers Pass is not misused,” he said.
Mohd Shafie said this during the question-and-answer session in the Dewan Rakyat in Kuala Lumpur today.
In this regard, Mohd Shafie said that the Foreign Workers Pass to be issued by the Sabah State Government should have strict security features to ensure that it is not misused to apply for citizenship status.
He said that the process of registering foreign workers in Sabah should also be transparent and clear so that there are statistics for each specific category, such as IMM13 holders, Kad Burung-Burung, and Census Cards.
