Committee chairman Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan said the proposal was one of the suggestions from various political groups and NGOs that had been published in the media which his panel had picked.
“Since there were no suggestions presented directly to us, we looked at the proposals from various groups in the media,” he told reporters after receiving his appointment letter as technical committee chairman from Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi here yesterday.
Apart from getting public feedback on tackling the illegal immigrant problem, the committee is tasked with submitting recommendations to the main panel on the management of Sabah’s foreign population.
The setting up of the two committees was recommended by the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Sabah’s illegal immigrant problem.
Pairin, who is the deputy chief minister, said the issuing of special identity cards would entail the statewide registration of all those living in Sabah.
“We took note of the proposal as it would enable us to identity bona fide Malaysians in Sabah and foreigners who are workers, refugees or are undocumented.
“It is an elimination process in determining who the actual citizens here are,” he added.
Later, after jointly chairing the main committee meeting with Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman, Dr Ahmad Zahid said Malaysian security forces were mounting operations against illegal immigrants in the state.
He said the police and Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom) had adopted the motto “Not one single day without an operation” to show their commitment in tracking down foreigners who were in Sabah illegally.
“This also reflects the Government’s seriousness in tackling this problem. Our sincerity in resolving this matter should never be questioned,” he added.
He said Esscom had conducted 132 integrated operations since last year involving security forces as well as Immigration and National Registration department personnel with 1,334 people being checked, of which 560 were detained.
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