The unknown whereabouts of 15,000 illegal immigrants and the ratio of 1:1 illegal workers to legal workers in Sarawak are not just shocking but are also of great concern to those living in housing estates in Kuching, Sibu and Miri, says Wanita PKR national deputy head Voon Shiak Ni.

"It means that if we have one million legal workers, there are also one million illegal workers," Voon said today in arguing that the numbers of illegals in the state could be the reason why crimes and social problems have worsened of late.

azlan"Nowadays, street crimes, burglaries and house break-ins are rampant. We have heard of crimes committed by foreigners and with the influx of foreigners undetected by our government, it will further complicate investigations into such crimes."

Sarawak Immigration Department director Robert Lian said recently the department was puzzled about the whereabouts of 15,000 illegal immigrants in Sarawak.

On his part, Human Resources Minister Richard Riot revealed recently that the numbers of illegal workers in the country had reached an alarming ratio of one illegal worker to every legal worker.

Child beggars on the streets

Said Voon: "Social problems are also getting more complicated because of the foreigners coming in and some are used by syndicates to carry out illegal activities, such as drug smuggling and prostitution.

"One of the most recent cases was the issue of child beggars in the streets of Sibu. In one case, an Indonesian mother made her children beg on the streets.

"All these issues are haunting the people when they are on the streets, and they do not feel safe even at home."

With so many illegal immigrants in Sarawak, and with people with undetected identities, efforts to curb crime are hampered, she told a media conference in Kuching today.

NONECommenting on the same issue, Sarawak DAP chairperson Chong Chieng Jen (right) said increased crimes in housing estates have turned these housing estates into black areas.

"Thefts and house break-ins are daily occurrences now as criminals are concentrating on housing estates and residential areas, particularly in Kuching.

"The people are not safe on the streets, and they are not even safe in their own homes. Almost all these housing estates are ‘black' areas due to lack of police presence," said Chong, who is the MP for Bandar Kuching.

Deployed in tourist centres

According to Chong, the police are being deployed in tourist centres as there are cases of tourists being robbed, thus the police have been neglecting the housing estates.

He said DAP has been calling on the police to increase their deployment of personnel to fight crime rather, than assigning them to office work and non-crime fighting work.

"Currently the police deploy about 10 percent of their 120,000 personnel to fight crime. This figure is certainly not enough," Chong said, and he called on Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi to be serious about fighting crime.

Zahid should concentrate his efforts in combatting crime instead of paying politics, raising the ‘Allah' issue and prosecuting political parties not aligned to the BNl, Chong said.

"Zahid was so gung ho in introducing the Prevention of Crime Act amendments to give the police more power and detain people without trial.

"Before the amendments were passed, all the cybercafés were closed. Now, after the PCA amendments have been passed, we see cybercafés starting to open again.

"In Kota Sentosa, 22 cybercafés have re-opened. The people are gambling and losing money in these cybercafés.

"After they lose their money what they do is to steal and their target is housing estates. This is one of the reasons why housebreaking and thefts have increased," added Chong, who is also Kota Sentosa assemblyperson.