SARAWAK is changing its tactic in its fight against the entry of illegal immigrants from the neighbouring Indonesian province of Kalimantan. 

Deputy Chief Minister James Masing, who also chairs the border security control committee – a sub-committee under the state disaster management committee – told The Malaysian Insight the change was forced because “it is quite impossible” to keep the 70 known jungle trails crisscrossing 1,800km-long Sarawak – Kalimantan border under watch all the time. 

Masing, in explaining why the border committee earlier today agreed to set up a joint task force, said it would have to devise new tactics to plug the illegal entry before an influx occurs.

He said members of the task force, represented by all the enforcement agencies – police, General Operations Force, army, Immigration, Road Transport and Customs Departments, will, for example, have to study the tactics employed by human smugglers and identify the routes they frequently take to get the illegals to their final destinations.

They are normally in the main towns Kuching, Sibu, Bintulu and Miri. 

The task force will be chaired and coordinated by Safri Zainuddin, who is permanent secretary of the Infrastructure and Port Development Ministry. 

“These tekong normally bring these people (illegal immigrants) across in small group.

“They will then join up with other groups (that managed to slip into the state) at a pre-designated rendezvous point for the transport that will take them to their final destinations. 

“It’s quite impossible to catch them along the rat trails but probably easier once they are on the road,” Masing told The Malaysian Insight. 

It is easier, because Sarawak currently only has one road, the Pan Borneo Highway, that connects all the towns from north to south vice versa. 

He said for a start, roadblocks will continue to be mounted on the main roads leading out of official border crossing at Lundu, Serian, Bau, Biawak, Balai Ringin and Lubok Antu to look out for these illegal immigrants. 

A post-meeting statement said Masing had expressed a concern of not only having adequate and regular patrols at the countless of rat trails or “jalan gajah” (the much larger illegal trails designed for cars and trucks) along the border but also catching the tekong. 

He warned that skippers, employers who employ illegal immigrants or foreign workers harbouring their illegal countrymen will be severely penalised for their action. 

“The government will not hesitate to take tough action against those who are found guilty.”

He advised them to take heed of the fine meted by a Sibu Sessions Court yesterday on an employer who pleaded guilty to harbouring 45 illegal immigrants. 

The court slapped him with a whopping RM225,000 fine.

He was found guilty under Section 55E(1) of the Immigration Act 1959/63, which carries a RM5,000 fine, a three-month jail sentence, for each illegal immigrant engaged. 

Foreign workers who harbour their illegal countrymen, could be deported back to their country, Masing added.

The guarantee of a job is what is driving Indonesian across the border illegally. 

There is an acute shortage in the labour-intensive economic sectors, such as construction and plantation, which locals do not want to take up.

Masing said by crossing the border illegally, they are bypassing the Covid-19 screening and therefore pose a risk to the general population in the state. – February 3, 2021.