KUALA LUMPUR: The Ministry of Home Affairs will run surveillance and exercise preliminary control to avoid Labuan from becoming a transit hub for smuggling illegal immigrants.
Its Deputy Minister Datuk Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said that the steps were being taken following the potential of Sabah becoming a transit hub for illegals from the Philippines and Kota Kinabalu to enter Sarawak and Kuala Lumpur.
“My ministry will monitor, beginning with the Immigration Department, and I will personally visit Labuan at the soonest to determine its policing and other needs, so it does not become a transit hub for illegal immigrants,” he said during the question-and-answer session at the Dewan Rakyat yesterday.
He was replying to a supplementary question from Datuk Rozman Isli’s (BN-Labuan) who wanted to know if Labuan would become a transit hub for illegal immigrants following the opening of immigration counters at Labuan airport recently even though it only managed domestic flights.
Answering Datuk Henry Sum Agong’s (BN-Lawas) original question, who wanted to know if safety control at the borders and interior areas such as Lawas was sufficient to deter drug smuggling, illegal immigrants, illegal gambling activities and burglaries, Wan Junaidi said the matter was monitored by the authorities.
On other matters, Wan Junaidi said 49 out of 54 organisations declared unregistered with the Registrar of Societies (ROS) were found running illegal activities.
According to him, one of the organisations was recently found running political activities.
“Four were found to be running activities not under their jurisdiction or level of duty, for example Pasukan Peronda Sukarela (PPS) in Penang, wherein the duty to monitor safety should rest at the federal level.”
He said this in response to Er Teck Hwa’s (DAP-Bakri) supplementary question regarding unregistered societies during the question-and-answer session.
In order to curb unregistered societies, which posed a threat to the nation, Wan Junaidi said the ROS took action by declaring and reporting the organisations as unlawful entities under Section 5 of the Societies Act 1966. — Bernama