Home minister insists ‘Projek IC’ doesn’t exist, but admits tough to count Sabah’s illegal immigrants
PAPAR, Dec 16 — Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi insisted today that the much-touted “Projek IC”, said to be behind Sabah’s boom in naturalised citizens, does not exist.
Citing official data from the Statistics Department and the National Registration Department, he said of the 3.2 million total population in the northeast Borneo state, foreigners accounted for only some 700,000 people compared to 2.5 million Malaysian citizens.
The foreigners included those with valid work permits and permanent resident passes, he noted.
“Out of the total 700,000, we are estimating about 250,000 are illegal immigrants. The figure is hard to confirm because some are undocumented,” he said.
The minister accused irresponsible parties of manipulating the results of the recent Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on immigrants in Sabah by suggesting that the number of illegal immigrants in Sabah outnumber genuine Malaysians.
“But what is important is that there is no Projek IC as claimed by some opposition and NGOs, only actions by individuals within or outside the government, and it happened before the RCI and they were detained under ISA, and legal action was taken, ” he added.
The RCI report, released to the public earlier this month said that Project IC, a clandestine project to give out citizenship to illegal immigrants in Sabah in exchange for votes, “most likely” existed based on testimonies from several government officials.
https://my.news.yahoo.com/home-minister-insists-projek-ic-doesn-t-exist-053700365.html
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