Kota
Kinabalu, Thurs.- Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) today urged
the Barisan Nasional government to disclose to Sabahans and
especially Likas voters what action it would take to overcome
the condition imposed by the Philippines government on illegal
immigrants and deportees returning to their home land.
Deputy president Dr Maximus Ongkili said the imposition of
valid travel documents for Filipino citizens returning home
as well as fines for transportation providers ferrying those
without documents would certainly lead to a massive increase
in the number of illegal immigrants Sabah.
"The
action by Manila regarding this matter is tantamount to forcing
illegal Filipino immigrants to swarm our land stay permanently
here unless the Federal government can act swiftly to solve
the problem.
"By
re-deporting Filipinos without travel documents back to Sabah
and fining shipping agents RM5,000 per passenger, these people
will be in no man’s land. Transportation providers will not
even want to ship illegal immigrants to their home countries.
The end result is that Sabah will be forever swarmed by these
illegals," he claimed.
Ongkili
who is also Bandau MP and Tandek Assemblyman said the present
difficulty caused by the Manila condition showed that there
were no signs of the improvement in solving the problem of
illegal immigrants in Sabah despite claims by the government
to the contrary.
"The
fact of the matter remains that the problem of illegal immigrants
in Sabah has been left unsolved by the federal government
for too long. For a long time Federal leaders treated the
matter lightly, viewing it as nothing more than a minor irritant.
Today our security is being threatened by this single important
menace.
"Irresponsible
leaders even used illegal immigrants as political tools especially
as voters as proven by the Likas petition case. They fail
to realise that they are playing with the future of Sabahans
and their children," he stressed.
