KUCHING: Sarawak has requested more border posts to be set up along its border with Kalimantan in a move to beef up security.
Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri James Masing said it was necessary to do so, considering the borders would be buzzing with activity once Indonesia's plan to relocate its capital to Kalimantan begins in the years to come with more people expected following the relocation and higher risk of border breaches.
"It is estimated that there will be three million people as part of administrative required manpower moving to the new capital in six years. I suggest, we get ourselves prepared by mounting as many as possible border posts along our borders at the Kapit division," he said.
He said Sarawak would need help from Putrajaya as it involved international borders between Malaysia and Indonesia.
He said this after visiting the site for a proposed General Operations Force (GOF) forward operating base at Tapak Megah in Bukit Mabong, which is situated 19.5km from the Sarawak-Kalimantan border at the Kapit division today.
As the minister in charge of the state's security, Masing said with the global pandemic and increasing new Covid-19 daily cases in Kalimantan, the Sarawak government had been on high alert especially involving the highly contagious delta variant.
With many cases of encroachment involving illegal immigrants via unguarded entry points like at Tapak Megah and Long Singut, he said the government had to be more vigilant in safeguarding these entry points.
Masing had also handed over two units of motorcycles, one unit of all-terrain vehicle (ATV) and high-capacity drones for the GOF members stationed along the border.
Masing said another site at Tapak Megah had been approved as a customs, immigration, and quarantine (CIQ) facility.
"We are now designing the road access between the CIQ and the GOF forward base before we kick start the construction of the project," he said.