Philippines rejects IMM13 holders as its citizens – Azis

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Azis

KOTA KINABALU: Repatriation of Filipinos with IMM13 passes is tough, said Deputy Home Minister Datuk Mohd Azis Jamman.

He clarified the question was not because the government did not want to send them (the IMM13 pass holders) back to the Philippines but the issue was that the Philippines itself denied those people as its citizens.

“We wanted to send them there but when we got there, the Philippines said they were not its people. So, what do we do with these people? We cannot leave them to die.

“That is why this is our problem. Can you imagine, they got married, the father and mother have IMM13 and have children and the children have no document.

“So, the Philippines does not accept those people with the IMM13 document, what more those who have no document, the children,” he said during the legal dialogue with members of parliament and Sabah state assemblymen at the Pacific Sutera Harbour Resort here yesterday.

IMM13 is a temporary pass issued to refugees, Chinese illegals who surrendered and former foreign workers in 1968-1970 which consisted of Filipinos and Indonesians.

The pass was issued starting from 1963 and currently there are 99,055 passes recorded by the Immigration Department.

Azis, who is also Sepanggar member of parliament, said the dialogue was a very good platform for enlightenment and paved the way to move forward as well as coming up with ways to resolve this issue.

He also opined that the IMM13 holders should be given some kind of document for the sake of having a record of all these people.

“But let us assure that whatever document we want to give, it does not mean that we want to give them ICs (citizenship),” he emphasized.

On another matter regarding Rohingya refugees which is being discussed in parliament on a proposal to issue them with IMM13 passes, Azis said his personal stand was Sabah could not afford to accept any of the refugees as Sabah had already its own unresolved problem involving its own migrants, especially the Filipino migrants.

“I said my personal stand on Rohingya. I said we should pressure Myanmar to accept its people because the moment you give this IMM13, meaning to say they will be here forever, just like what happened in Sabah,” he said.