The arrest of four Immigration Department officers in Lahad Datu early this month on complaints about Pakistanis being issued dubious, long-term social visit passes to stay in Sabah has been welcomed by Star Sabah.

“The on-going operations to weed out illegal immigrants are welcomed and lauded.

“However, good governance and stringent action need to be taken to prevent the recurrence of Project IC and the dubious issuance of Malaysian identity cards (MyKad) to ineligible foreigners and their registration as illegal voters,” Star Sabah chief Jeffrey Kitingan said in a statement.

Commenting on the arrests of four immigration officers by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) on Feb 2, Jeffrey said it was reported that MACC had confiscated two cheques for RM175,000 and RM7,500 and seized cash amounting to RM50,000 during  raids on the houses of the suspects.

The MACC also seized several files related to the dubious issue of the social visit passes from the Lahad Datu Immigration.

Jeffrey, who is also Bingkor assemblyperson, said the arrests came after MACC received a complaint that quite a number of Pakistanis had been given long-term social visit passes throughout last year, in the names of alleged “local wives”.

However, he said, it was subsequently learnt that no such application had been made and the women were also not their wives.

Bid by the arrested to bribe the officers...

There were also separate attempts by some of the Pakistanis detained to bribe the immigration officers, he said.

Jeffrey said that the current system of federal control of Sabah’s immigration and registration of Sabahans and their handling of the detained illegal immigrants could not be trusted and should not be allowed to continue.

 

“That rogue immigration officers are prepared to be bribed to give long-stay social passes only reflects the mindset that they have of their masters in Putrajaya – that there is little or no concern for Sabah.

 

“That the large number of Pakistani visitors to Sabah, who are now found all over Sabah, even in remote villages, proves the scale of the problem,” he lamented.