Sabah deems temporary passes necessary to monitor foreign nationals

The Sabah Temporary Pass (PSS), which will be issued from June 1 next year, is aimed at monitoring the movements of foreigners in the state.

Chief Minister Mohd Shafie Apdal said it was also an effort to ensure that no one can falsify documents.

"We are issuing the PSS to ensure that those who work in plantations and in certain places can be monitored by the Home Ministry and the Immigration Department.

"Sabah has close to 500,000 foreigners, so it is better for us to monitor them than not to know where they are," he told reporters at the Sabah Administrative Centre in Kota Kinabalu today.

Shafie said that the Committee on the Management of Foreign Nationals agreed on the necessity for a discussion with the Philippines to ensure that its deported nationals should have valid travel documents if they want to return to Sabah.

The committee meeting was jointly chaired by himself and Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin last Friday.

The chief minister also said that the deployment of foreign workers, especially labourers from Indonesia, should also be carefully managed to avoid a labour shortage, since the relocation of its capital would attract more citizens to East Kalimantan.

- Bernama