Wong Ho Leng 'utter nonsense' - Datu Robert Lian Sarawak Immigration Director

Director rubbishes Ho Leng’s statement as utter nonsense

KUCHING: State Immigration Department director Datu Robert Lian has described as “utter nonsense” the statement made by Bandar Sibu MP Wong Ho Leng that Immigration officers were alleged to have issued identity cards to illegal Indonesian workers.

“He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. First and foremost we are not the agency which issued identity cards.

“And secondly, when we carry out our duties to check on illegal immigrants we have other enforcement officers joining us to ensure that we are transparent,” Robert told The Borneo Post here yesterday.

Wong had issued a statement in Sibu on Tuesday last week alleging that Immigration officers when visiting construction and oil palm companies asked whether they had illegal workers from Indonesia to be given Malaysian identity cards.

Wong added that the condition for the illegal workers to have the identity cards was that they must support Barisan Nasional in the upcoming general election.

He said the information he received also revealed that the identity cards could be issued at Batu Niah within a few days.

Wong, who is also Bukit Assek assemblyman, was quoted to have said that if there were 50 workers or more, the police would accompany them to (Batu Niah) apply for the identity cards.

He said he could not tell whether there was any truth in the allegation.

“Nevertheless, it is something very worrying. With the general election imminent, the possibility of it happening cannot be discounted,” said the DAP state chairman.

Wong also revealed that his friend who has a construction company here had told him that a few of his workers had been approached by the Immigration officers for the same reason.

Robert said his department was still trying to assist illegal workers to have proper documents even though the amnesty deadline had already ended on March 31.

The authorities reckoned that there were at least 50,000 illegal foreigners in Sarawak, and only 22,220 of them had been documented as legal workers.

These illegal workers were believed to have come to the country using social visit documents, especially those from West Kalimantan through the various entry points along the Sarawak-Kalimantan border.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson from the National Registration Department strongly denied the allegation.

“It’s not that easy, applicants of identity cards must produce supporting documents before they (their documents) could be further processed,” said the spokesperson.