Sabah Suhakam receives information about a “foreign identity card” scam targeting undocumented migrants

“Some parties have already started scamming people by preparing such cards. We were asked if it was genuine or not. Some were charged RM400 per person for this card.

“We believe this is an ongoing scam to take advantage of people who are desperate to obtain documents in order to seek employment and earn a living here,” he told reporters after a briefing. press here.

The groups, sometimes disguised as non-governmental organisations, are believed to be starting to visit villages in Sabah where migrants are trying to keep a low profile to avoid detection by authorities.

“We don’t know yet how far this operation goes, but maybe they worked the city. We want people to be aware of these activities and file police reports,” he said.

Jasmih said Sabah Suhakam was aware that undocumented migrants were often reluctant to surrender to the police and had to bear the cost of the deception themselves.

“We made a police report on the issuance of such cards, and we were told that the police were investigating it,” he said.

The Interior Ministry had issued a proposal in February to issue ‘foreigner identity cards’ to long-staying foreigners in Sabah in a bid to address ongoing issues of illegal immigrants or stateless communities in Sabah. .

It still needs to be implemented.

The idea of ​​regulating the undocumented community has been a decades-long issue, with each government struggling to push through its idea due to political and social resistance.

However, the issue remains unresolved and the complex undocumented community in Sabah has grown and impacted the socio-economic structure as well as the demographics of the state.

Earlier, Suhakam Commissioner Jerald Joseph told reporters that the bulk of complaints received by Sabah Suhakam relate to the issue of citizenship and statelessness.

When contacted, Sabah Police Commissioner Datuk Idris Abdullah confirmed that his commercial crime unit was looking into the matter.