TAWAU, Sept 9 — The Tawau and Sandakan districts have been categorised as ‘Red Zone’ areas as they are the foci of desperate illegals seeking identification documents to pass themselves off as Malaysian citizens.
Sabah National Registration Department (NRD) director Datuk Ismail Ahmad said as a result, the NRD staff in the two areas also faced challenges, including the offer of bribes by the illegals to obtain citizenship.
“The illegals try to use numerous means and also bait enforcement members with bribes just to obtain documents to enable them to stay in Malaysia,” he added.
He said this in his speech at a ceremony to take an oath and sign a corruption-free pledge involving 105 staff of the Tawau and Sandakan Zone NRD with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) here today.
The ceremony was witnessed by Sabah MACC director, Datuk Sazali Salbi. According to Ismail, Sabah’s total population stood at 3.2 million people, of which only 2.5 million were citizens. — Bernama
