Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz must resign for saying that Filipino refugees in Sabah are not a problem.

The minister has also been urged to apologise to the people of Sabah.

"Unless Nazri apologises and resigns to redeem the Cabinet, then the federal government might be construed also as an illegal government harbouring illegal people, including an unknown number of so-called Filipino refugees in Sabah," said the Consumer Association of Sabah and Labuan Federal Territory (Cash) secretary-general Joshua YC Kong in a statement.

He claimed that the 'illegal interference' of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Sabah since 1974 led to some 80,000 IMM 13 cards being issued to illegals from the Philippines who were actually not refugees.

He also claimed that the UNHCR did that unilaterally when Malaysia was not even a signatory to any international conventions on refugees.

"Was that (act) illegal? Vietnamese refugees were confined to Pulau Bidong while Filipinos were allowed to roam freely," he said.

Cash is a consumer movement that is also actively behind the signature campaign now underway in Sabah to petition the King to set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the problems Sabah is facing because of the influx of foreign illegals.

It is alleged that many of them have been issued with Malaysian identity cards and have become citizens and voters.

Cash president Patrick Sindu heads the Patriotic CItizens Forum on Identity Cards (Pacific) which has called on the government to revoke all ICs issued to foreigners under dubious means, including Project IC which is said to involve former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad as well as several former chief ministers.

Senior Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) leader Dr Chong Eng Leong has claimed that there are 1.8 million foreigners, of whom about one million have been given ICs over a period of three decades or more in Sabah. As a result, foreigners now outnumber the locals in Sabah.

Uncalled for

Meanwhile, Kong reminded that a former Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) commissioner had warned about the possibility of a reverse takeover because of the still dormant Philippine claim to Sabah.

Statements by Nazri and Yayasan Islam Sabah (YIS) president and former chief minister Mohd Harris Salleh regarding this issue do not help to ameliorate the security situation at all, he added.

Continuing his criticism against Nazri, Kong said the minister's statement was uncalled for and encouraged the government to keep 'Filipino refugees' in Sabah indefinitely.

He added that YIS is now even calling for the refugees to be given permanent resident status.

On the same note, Cash is happy that Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman is now supporting investigations into Project IC following its police report lodged last month. He also hoped Musa would also support Cash's signature campaign.