Malaysia fights illegal immigrants

Mon, 02 Mar 1998, 00:00 WIB | Source: AP

KUALA LUMPUR (AP): A regional official wants 45,000 army
reservists to help police keep illegal immigrants from entering
the country, a newspaper said yesterday.

Shahidan Kassim, chief minister of the northwestern state of
Perlis, has urged the Defense Ministry to mobilize the
Territorial Army to secure coastal areas and land borders, the
New Sunday Times reported. That army is made up of men and women
who have received military training in off hours from work.

In the past two weeks, 3,036 illegal immigrants have been
arrested for entering the country. Nearly 9,000 illegal
immigrants were caught in all of last year.

A senior marine police officer was quoted by another
newspaper, the Star, as saying the number of illegal immigrants
has jumped sharply because of the poor economic situation in
neighboring countries.

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