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.