Illegal immigrants more than a quarter of Sabah population

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) reiterated its call to the state government to take serious action to resolve the illegal immigrant problem in the state.

SAPP vice president Don Chin said only positive action by the state government would be able to protect the rights of Sabahans and reinstate public security.

He said Sabah has the highest population of immigrants, including illegal immigrants, as compared to other states in Malaysia.


"The illegal immigrants problem is a long-standing issue and is becoming serious.

Recently, the Population and Housing Census Report for 2010 of the Economic Planning Unit announced that about 27 per cent of Sabah's population are foreigners," he said.

He also alleged that the 899,799 foreign population in Sabah was not the actual total as there are many illegal immigrants who were not included in the census.

Chin added that the Barisan Nasional (BN) government needed to look into the issue seriously and provide an effective solution to protect the right of the people of the Sabah.

"There should be no compromise when it comes to security and the rights of the citizens in the state."

Chin, who is also SAPP Inanam Lama Branch chairman said that the issue had been brought up by Sepanggar member of Parliament sitting and alleged that the BN government 'ignored' the issue.

He said that sabahans would suffer in the BN government fails to address the issue and that the present government risks losing the people's faith in them.