KOTA KINABALU: The number of undocumented migrants in Sabah has burgeoned to over one million despite a 2020 election promise to resolve the issue, says a Parti Warisan leader.
Its Youth chief Terrence Au said data from the Statistics Department for 2020-2024 showed that 27.88% or over 1.04 million people residing in Sabah were non-Malaysian citizens as of this year.
"This is a cause for concern among Sabahans because the number is now the highest in the state's history," he said in a statement on Wednesday (Sept 11).
He said there had been an increase of 233,408 non-Malaysian citizens in the state over the last four years from the last recorded figure of 810,408.
"Statistics showed the foreigner population has only continued to grow," he added.
He said none of the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) government's actions show a clear path to resolving the issue, although it promised to do so in its September 2020 state election campaign.
"We see action from the government to reduce the influx of foreigners in Sabah by arresting and deporting (the undocumented) but the 1.04 million figure paints the opposite picture," Au said.
He said GRS had been vocal in playing up migrant issues throughout the 2020 election campaign, even objecting to the then Warisan-Pakatan Harapan state government's move to issue temporary passes (PSS) to foreigners.
"After winning the election, GRS rebranded PSS into a foreigner card which has now been changed to the Sabah Workers Integrated Management System (SWIMS)," he said, adding that some 40,000 foreign workers registered for it.
He said Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor and the GRS government should explain why the foreign presence in Sabah increased sharply by 156,800 last year as shown by the official statistics.
