Malyasia: More detention centres no solution

Building more temporary detention centres will not solve the illegal immigrant problem in Sabah but only aggravate it, said Suhakam Vice Chairman Tan Sri Simon Sipaun.

“Detention centres were constructed in the past but the problem became bigger and more complicated. Instead what is temporary became permanent,” he said in his address at a Dialogue on Civil and Political Rights organised by Suhakam.

Participants claimed that repeated calls by state leaders and non-governmental organisations for concrete action to address the problem had fallen on deaf ears.

Tan Sri Simon Sipaun set the tone for deliberation on the issue when he said that the illegal immigrant problem was now at a critical stage.

"My guess is they (illegal immigrants) may have outnumbered the locals," he said while describing it as the "mother of all problems" and "a national problem shouldered and suffered by the people of Sabah’.

Sipaun, a former Sabah state secretary, said Suhakam had received numerous complaints about illegal immigrants who have obtained MyKads and have voted in elections.

"It cannot be denied that their (illegal immigrants) presence is a genuine problem," he said.

He said the popular demand for the government to set up of a Royal Commission of Inquiry to investigate the problem merits serious consideration.

Sipaun asserted it was only fair and reasonable therefore that the illegal immigrant issue being a national burden should be equally shared among all the states in Malaysia.

"National leaders who have supported their presence in Sabah and have claimed that they posed no problem could have as many of them as possible to be settled in their respective constituencies. Such a move will indicate and prove their sincerity beyond doubt."

He acknowledged that the illegal immigrants, as human beings, have as much rights as Malaysian citizens.

"Their rights must be respected. Human rights have no borders. But this does not mean that they can walk in and out of Sabah and break the country's laws," he stressed.

It is estimated that there are 500,000 illegal immigrants in Sabah. They are mainly from the Philippines and Indonesia.

Date: 13 June 2008

Source: Daily Express