Siringan questions non-action on illegal workers
Kota Kinabalu January 03, 2010: Ranau Member of Parliament Datuk Siringan Gubat called on the Federal Government to be more serious in solving the problem of illegal immigrant workers in the State. He said the Home Ministry had promised to carry out "Ops Bersepadu" to weed out illegal immigrant workers in Sabah after a special amnesty granted to them which had expired last October.
"However, nothing seems to have been done about it since the expiry of the amnesty," he said.
Siringan, who is also Upko Vice President, was referring to the special amnesty granted to illegal immigrant workers in Sabah whereby they were given until October last year to register or face arrest and deportation if they failed to do so.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein was reported on Sept 10 as saying the last reminder for the illegals in Sabah to register would be until end of that month and action would be taken after that.
The Government had made various efforts to encourage the illegals to be registered, including reducing the levy on foreign workers by 50 per cent and extending the registration period, said Hishammuddin, adding the first of the three phases of the amnesty was carried out since last year.
"I am wondering what had happened after the expiry of the special amnesty. Together with fellow Sabahan Members of Parliament, we have asked about this in Parliament whether the special amnesty was extended or there is a new policy made by the Government, but no answers were given," said Siringan.
"The Government also promised to launch 'Ops Bersepadu' upon the expiry of the said special amnesty, but it seems nothing was done," he said.
Siringan said the Government needs to be more serious about this and should not just leave it to the enforcement authorities.
related to illegal immigrants and illegal immigrant workers in the State are not something that is small and can be just left to the enforcement agencies to shoulder," he said.
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