KOTA KINABALU: The Immigration Department hopes that the courts will impose heavier sentences, including whipping for employers who engage illegal immigrants (PATI).
Immigration director-general Datuk Seri Mustafar Ali said the whipping punishment was indeed provided in the Immigration Act 1959/63, in particular to offenders who employed more than six illegals.
“However, based on the record over the past two years, more than 1,400 employers were brought to court but only three offenders were sentenced with whipping as it was up to the courts to mete the punishment to the offender.
“The public might say that it is cruel to sentence whipping to the offenders, however, it is necessary when we look into the aspect of national security and sovereignty. We will not compromise on this matter,” he told reporters after the Sabah Immigration assembly programme, here today.
He said that Immigration had met the Chief Justice to convey the public opinion to support the use of whipping sentence to curb against the large number of PATI entering the country.
Mustafar added there were countries that applied this sentence as mandatory for individuals who were convicted of employing PATI and the implementation resulted in very positive developments.
Meanwhile, he said up to yesterday, the Immigration Department had carried out 14,500 operations nationwide since the beginning of this year and had detained more than 47,000 illegal immigrants.
“In Sabah alone, 1,371 operations have been carried out since the beginning of the year until yesterday involving the detention of 4,800 PATI and 62 employers suspected of employing them,” he added. — Bernama
