KUALA LUMPUR: Gerakan has urged the Federal government to deal with the problem of illegal immigrants in the country, declaring that it must be stopped.
Gerakan vice-president Datuk Dr Dominic Lau said it would be a tragedy for Malaysia if it continues to ignore the problem of illegal immigrants as they present a host of threats to the country.
"The Federal government must be determined to control the nation's borders and give a far more genuine attention to who enters the country.
"Positive results can be achieved by improving border security, reforming immigration policies and tightening the process of employer verification for employment," he suggested.
Border security is critically important to the national security and the lack of it could lead to a host of problems such as terrorism, human smuggling, public safety, environmental degradation, moral and cultural decline, and economic impacts including low wages, he added.
Lau noted that illegal immigrants on average tend to stay on and have families in the country, securing citizenship which includes rights to the nation's social benefits and this will only strain the resources meant for Malaysians.
"The undocumented aliens currently residing in the country and the illegal immigration rate is massive in scale and continues to grow by the year driven by a culture of illegality," he said in a statement today.
This is despite previous efforts by the government such as the 6P amnesty programme for foreign workers, which was implemented in 2011 and concluded in 2014.
Many foreign workers had actually failed to renew their temporary work permits under the 6P programme, thus increasing the number of undocumented immigrants in the country, he pointed out.
Lau warned that as the flouting of law has become the norm, it would also makes the job of terrorists and traffickers infinitely easier.