Tough action needed against illegals

Tough action needed against illegals

V.K. Chin, The Star, Asia News Network, Selangor, Malaysia

The government will have to find a balance in dealing with the illegal immigrants in such a manner that it will be seen to be cooperating with its neighbors without at the same time upsetting the people.

At the request of Indonesia and the Philippines, the government has decided on a soft approach in handling the situation instead of using tougher action in flushing out the illegal immigrants.

This was done to maintain goodwill and cooperation among Asean members and in this case, Indonesia and the Philippines have the most number of their nationals in Malaysia without proper travel documents or work permits.

Indonesia has cited the tsunami disaster as the reason for its request and to give it more time to deal with this mammoth tragedy in which more than 200,000 of its citizens in the Aceh province were killed and nearly a million made homeless by the giant waves.

As for the Philippines, it would like more time for its officials in Sabah, where their countrymen are concentrated, to issue documents for the illegal immigrants to make the short trip home.

Unfortunately, it had been reported that its officials were unable to trace many of the Filipinos in their places of residence in the state.

This merely proves that these illegal immigrants are not willing to return home just yet.

While Malaysians realize the importance of maintaining good relations with its closest neighbors at all levels, they would like the government to look after their interests and welfare too.

They would like all the illegal immigrants to be sent home without further delay and that only those whose services are really required to meet local labor shortage be allowed to remain, provided they have been issued with work permits and are of good health and character.

The health issue is a worrying one as some of these workers have brought in very deadly diseases such as malaria and leprosy, which were no longer medical threats here.

The fact that these people were cleared medically showed the serious flaws existing in the screening process on the Indonesian side.

This ineptitude is being compounded by the fact that these foreign workers would need to get a medical check-up locally only after a year.

The government would like such medical examinations to be done earlier, otherwise those carrying such deadly diseases would have time to spread them to those they came into contact with.

But the government cannot go on indefinitely using the soft approach to persuade the illegal immigrants to come forward and return home voluntarily without fear of punishment.

Though this offer may attract some of the illegal immigrants, a significant number of them may opt to stay put.

The government must be prepared for this eventuality and the action to be taken against them.

It must come up with the necessary measures to deal with the recalcitrant ones to show that it does not pay to break local laws, immigration or others as well.