Minister in the Prime Ministers Department Dr Rais Yatim today blamed incompetent enforcement by relevant authorities for the problem of illegal immigrants in the country.

The minister said present legislation gave the police and immigration departments sufficient clout to deal with the influx of illegal immigrants.

But the enforcement is insufficient. District officials and sometimes even the state assembly members allow these people to come here and open stalls and build houses. No action is taken. We must ask ourselves why, he said.

Asked if the root cause of the inefficient enforcement could be bribery, the de facto law minister just said, I have spoken about this enough. I dont want to repeat it.

Citing Selayang and Ampang Jaya in Selangor, the minister said illegal immigrants could be seen operating businesses there but local authorities have not taken any action.

This (problem) is not the fault of the law but rather the fault of enforcement, said Rais at a press conference after opening a two-day seminar on alternative dispute resolution (ADR) at the Prime Ministers Department in Putrajaya.

Civil cases backlog

In recent weeks, the government had taken a stern stand on foreign workers and illegal immigrants following riots involving Indonesian workers who refused to be deported.

Last Friday, some 150 African illegal immigrants hopped off police trucks and escaped while being transported from Kuala Lumpur to a detention camp in Kemayan, Pahang.

Though most have been re-arrested, Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said yesterday that disciplinary action would be taken if the police escorts were found to be negligent in their duties.

Rais also told reporters the judiciary has been urged to amend court procedures to include ADR  a method allowing litigants in civil cases to settle their disputes out-of-court via mediation.

This was not to bar people from going to court but rather to clear the backlog of civil court cases, which totalled 300,157 as up to September last year, said Rais.

ADR is not popular yet in the country. We must promote it among academics, law practitioners and other relevant parties, he said adding, The backlog will then be minimised and people will be more congenial to bermuafakat (work together), he added.

Proper mechanism

Rais said the focus of ADR for now would be civil cases related to livelihood, family, insurance, traffic accidents and property claims.

He said under a proposed amendment, litigants would have to prove that they have exhausted all venues, including ADR, before taking their case to court.

On whether ADR could be used for ongoing civil cases, Rais said the courts can go through the cases and subject those still in the preliminary stages to the scheme.

But we cannot simply ask the courts to download these cases for ADR as the mechanism is still not in place, he said.

The minister said he would consult Chief Justice Mohamed Dzaiddin Abdullah to ensure that the proper mechanism could be in place within this year.

Todays seminar is to get the feedback from the law experts on the ADR and the findings will then be presented to the Cabinet, he said.

He added some 300 lawyers have been trained in ADR by the Bar Council and other relevant agencies.