Published: Monday October 19, 2009 MYT 8:12:00 PM
Numbers of foreign workers in Sabah not alarming, says Musa
By RUBEN SARIO
KOTA KINABALU: The presence of more than 600,000 foreign workers and their families in Sabah is no cause for alarm, Chief Minister Datuk Musa Aman said.
He said foreign workers and their families would eventually return to their home countries once their travel documents expired.
“These people will not be staying in Sabah forever,” he said after launching a seminar on strategic planning for the 10th Malaysia Plan here on Monday.
Musa said this when asked to comment on Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein’s statement on Sunday that foreigners comprised 610,104 of Sabah’s 3.4mil population.
He said the largest number comprised 317,837 undocumented migrant workers and their dependants while there were 230,000 foreigners working in the state legally.
Hishammuddin said statistics obtained from the two-phase Ops Bersepadu carried over the past two years also showed that there were 57,197 people living in the state as refugees.
A total of 5,643 illegal immigrants were detected in the first phase of Ops Bersepadu that focused in the state’s west coast and interior and 4,427 more were uncovered in the second phase in the east coast districts, Hishammuddin added.
On Monday, Musa said the Government was committed to detaining and repatriating foreigners staying in the state illegally.
“This is a continuous effort. There is no full stop in this regard,” he added.
Tuaran MP Datuk Rahman Dahlan said the figures revealed by Hishammuddin reflected the Federal Government’s transparent approach in dealing with the issue.
“I won’t say that it is a comfortable figure but it’s good to have the official statistical information to enable the Government to come up with comprehensive policies in dealing with the situation in the future,” he added.
Rahman said the figures compiled by the Home Ministry were necessary as “so many people have been throwing all sorts of numbers around about Sabah’s migrant population over the years.”
Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk V.K. Liew said the figures of foreigners in Sabah could be higher had it not been for the constant action to nab illegal immigrants in the state.
“Our temporary immigration detention centres house about 2,000 to 3,000 detainees at any one time,” noted Liew, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) president.
He said Sabah needed the foreign labour but what was crucial was for the authorities to ensure that they were properly documented.
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