Kota Kinabalu: Activist and surgeon Dr Chong Eng Leong lambasted the slow progress in digitally registering foreign workers and undocumented immigrants in Sabah, questioning the political will of both Federal and State governments to resolve the long-standing issue.
In a statement Wednesday, Dr Chong cited figures from the Minister in the Chief Minister’s Department, Datuk Nizam Titingan, who disclosed that only 39,276 foreigners, including 21,994 workers and 17,282 dependants, had been successfully registered in the Sabah Workers Integrated Management System (SWIMS) as of April 2024.
“The digital registration started in September 2022, meaning it has taken over 19 months to register just around 2,000 people per month,” Dr Chong said.
At this snail’s pace, he estimated it would take over five years to register the 136,055 immigrants holding documents like IMM13, Burung Burung and Sijil Banci from 2016 data.