By Yussof Imbang
KOTA KINABALU: Immediate action is essential to establish a Permanent Secretariat aimed at controlling the rising number of foreign migrants in Sabah.
The Sabah government, in collaboration with the Ministry of Home Affairs, must unite to create this secretariat as outlined in the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) report, stated Kuamut Representative Datuk Masiung Banah.
He highlighted that the 2022 RCI report indicated that out of 3.9 million residents in Sabah, 1.9 million are foreign nationals categorised into four groups: undocumented migrants, war refugees holding IMM13 cards, stateless individuals, and foreigners with invalid documents.
Masiung estimates that over 2 million foreign migrants currently reside in Sabah, as the figure from the RCI reflects only those counted, leaving many unregistered migrants throughout the state.
He compared this situation to Sarawak, which has a population of 2.82 million but only 159,000 foreign nationals, underscoring the disparity.
Furthermore, Masiung pointed out that the issue of foreign migrants in Sabah tends to surface only during election campaigns, with no substantial actions taken to address the problem, leading to an increase in foreign nationals across the state.
He emphasised the need for improvements in various areas to tackle the foreign migrant issue, noting that there are 48 identified smuggling routes from the Philippines and 17 from Kalimantan.
Masiung also mentioned that the government has yet to officially designate these smuggling routes identified by the RCI over the past 40 years.
