Malaysia limits routes for RI ships

Malaysia limits routes for RI ships

Agence France-Presse, Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia on Monday enforced a new security ruling limiting the number of routes for Indonesian and Filipino ships in a bid to bar the entry of illegal immigrants to its Sabah state on Borneo island.

The ruling, which limits the movement of trade and passenger vessels entering and leaving Sabah to seven designated routes along the coast, would enable authorities to "keep an eye on the ships", said state Chief Minister Chong Kah Kiat.

"Observations by the navy have revealed that there are trading and passenger vessels from the Philippines and Indonesia entering Sabah which are involved in illegal activities like smuggling illegal immigrants, firearms," Chong was quoted as saying by the official Bernama news agency.

Chong said the Indonesian and Filipino vessels had to comply with other regulations including remaining within one nautical mile of the designated routes, and which barred them from carrying or storing firearms.

He added that sufficient time had been given to the ships to comply with the new ruling.

State authorities last month launched a crackdown on illegal immigrants and armed security personnel have demolished some 10,000 squatter homes and detained 6,378 mainly Filipino illegal immigrants. Most of them have been sent home.

Officials say there are an estimated 100,000-150,000 illegals among some 600,000 immigrants in Sabah and thousands of Filipinos slip into the state undetected each year.

The state's crackdown is in line with a tougher approach by the federal government, which announced in February that Indonesians can be hired in future only as domestic helpers and plantation workers, after two riots in January by textile and construction workers.