One out of every six people in Sabah is a foreigner.
Disclosing the latest statistics yesterday, Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said foreigners comprised 610,104 of Sabah’s 3.4 million population.
He said the largest number comprised 317,837 undocumented migrant workers and their dependants while 230,000 more are working in the state legally.
Hishammuddin said statistics obtained from the two-phase Ops Bersepadu carried out over the past two years showed that there were 57,197 people living in the state as refugees.
Hishammuddin said a total of 5,643 illegal immigrants were detected in the first phase of Ops Bersepadu that focused in the state’s west coast and interior and 4,427 more were uncovered in the second phase in the east coast districts.
He said a notable achievement of Ops Bersepadu was the registration of 317,837 migrant workers and their dependants who were illegals.
Of this number, he said, just over half or 192,723 migrant workers had legalised their stay by paying the necessary levies while 120,114 more had yet to do so even after the Immigration Department extended the deadline for the process from May 31 to Oct 31.
“We have also reduced the levy by half. Thus if these foreign workers and their employers still refuse to regularise their stay, we will take stern action.
“So many opportunities have been provided to legalise their presence in Sabah. After October, we will be embarking on a more aggressive operation to nab illegal migrant workers,” Hishammuddin added.
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