"WE CANNOT TAKE THIS (PATI) LIGHTLY BECAUSE IF LEFT UNCHECKED, MORE PROBLEMS WILL FOLLOW." - HAMISA

OVERWHELMING: 161,370 illegal immigrants rounded up last year and more than 70 per cent were Indonesians

Foreigners arriving at Tanjung Batu, Tawau, opposite the ferry terminal.

TAWAU 11 April 2012: FOREIGNERS come in and out of the district every day, making it hard to tell who are here legally or otherwise.

It takes half-an-hour by boat to enter the northern side of East Kalimantan, the nearest being Pulau Kampung Bambangan. Passenger boats and a ferry also shuttle between here and Nunukan every day.

Those who came by ferry would alight at the terminal here but passenger boats normally dock at the waterfront, barely a stone's throw away, because "there are no checkpoints there".

No figures were given but recently, Tanjung Batu assemblyman Datuk Hamisa Samat said the district was ranked No. 1 as far as the presence of illegal immigrants was concerned.

"We cannot take this lightly because if left unchecked, more problems will follow."

For three months last year, the Immigration Department registered 161,370 illegal immigrants under the 5P Programme (Registration, Amnesty, Monitoring, Enforcement and Repatriation Programme). Of the total, 115,046 were Indonesians.

The Immigration last year carried out 660 operations across the state, stepping up operations in areas with a high concentration of illegal workers such as construction sites, factories and business premises.

A total of 17,248 illegal immigrants were caught and deported to their countries of origin.

Hamisa also said the district was now a "hub" for smuggling out subsidised items.

"There are even complaints about staff from enforcement agencies being involved."

If the allegations were true, Hamisa called them "traitors" and urged the government to nip the problem in the bud.

The smugglers, she claimed, used lorries to unload their goods into boats in Tanjung Batu, also known as Sabindo, from midnight until the wee hours during weekends.

"From there, the goods will be sent to Pulau Kampung Bambangan."

During the recent state assembly sitting, Hamisa presented photographs of smuggling activities and stressed that in the long run, Sabah would suffer the consequences if the problems were left unchecked.

The authorities responded to this with the interception of three shipments of goods in waters off Sabindo over the last two weeks.

The skippers of the three vessels, all foreigners, were also held in the operations.