SHAFIE Apdal has ordered the Sabah Immigration Department to stop issuing visitors’ passes meant for Filipino refugees to their newborns, as this will hamper the government’s efforts to resolve the illegal immigrant issue in the state.

The Sabah chief minister insisted that he only came to know of this recently, adding that the Immigration Department should take instructions from the Home Ministry before issuing such passes.

“I just chaired the security council meeting a couple of days ago and we never touched on the issuance of IMM13.

“But when it happened I was quite surprised. I had to instruct them to stop it,” Shafie told reporters after opening the Upko Tri-annual meet in Kota Kinabalu today.

IMM13 is a visitor’s pass issued by the Immigration Department under Rule 11 of the Immigration Department Regulation 1963 to Filipino refugees escaping the unrest in the southern Philippines in the 1970s.

IMM13 holders are allowed to stay in Sabah and Labuan and work without having to apply for a work pass. They are also allowed to go to school and receive free medical treatment at government clinics and hospital.

The issuance of IMM13 was stopped in 2013 after the intrusion of terrorists from the southern Philippines into Lahad Datu in Sabah.

However, two days ago, the immigration department’s special unit in Wisma Bandang was flooded by IMM13 holders trying to get their children the document after applications for the pass was reopened.

Photographs and videos of the crowd waiting at the immigration department went viral and immediately triggered rumours of another round of Malaysian identity cards being issued to foreigners.

The exercise was stopped the next day.

Shafie said the IMM13 is one of the issues the state government is trying to resolve and it needs Putrajaya’s cooperation.

He said if the federal immigration department had acted on its own, without the knowledge of the state, it will cripple Sabah’s efforts to address the problem.

“Besides, if the issue involved stateless persons, its a different approach but when it involves parents of illegal immigrants, the department should leave it alone.

“This should be the practice of the immigration department,” he said.

Shafie added the department should not waste government money to sustain temporary detention centres when they should use the available funds to deport illegals back to their countries. – October 13, 2018.