KUCHNG, June 21 — State enforcement agencies, led by the police and the military, caught 572 undocumented Indonesians trying to cross over the Sarawak-Kalimantan border over the last six months, Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr James Masing said today.
He said the migrants, including women and children, were immediately deported back to their country after they were caught entering the state through rat trails.
He said they were detained under the Immigration Act 1959/1963 and deported under the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988 or Act 342.
He said there is concern these undocumented migrants could be carriers of Covid-19.
“My problem as the minister guarding our border with numerous rat trails is not in catching them, but how to stop them from coming back.
“They are repeated offenders. Either we employ more enforcement personnel, such as the police or military, to guard the rat trails or we seal our border. Both are almost impossible to do,” he said when asked to elaborate on his press statement.
“The second best option is to severely punish the human traffickers as they are the main culprits who entice the Indonesians to come to Sarawak illegally,” Masing, who is also the state border security committee chairman, said.
He said the enforcement agencies arrested 45 local and Indonesian human traffickers over the last six months under the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007.
“At the same time, I wish to remind the public that hiding and giving protection to illegal immigrants is a serious crime,” he said.
