Sabah DCM: State hopes to complete foreigner digital data registration by year-end

KOTA KINABALU, Jan 22 — The Sabah state government is hoping to complete its digital registration of foreigners by year-end, said deputy chief minister Datuk Seri Jeffrey Kitingan.

Kitingan, who heads the special committee for the exercise, said the project was now collecting data from all foreign workers in plantations after its pilot project on Sawit Kinabalu which saw about half of its 14,855 foreign workforce working illegally.

“We have fixed problems and challenges that came up from the pilot project and now we are going to all the plantations. Once we have completed the plantations sector then they will move into other sectors like farms, industries then services.

“The Cabinet will be given progress reports accordingly,” he said.

The state Agriculture, Fisheries and Food industries minister said that the biggest challenge was its lack of manpower which made the process slower.

“We want more resources and teams or else we will be slower. We want it all done by this year, as soon as possible,” he said.

In June last year, he said that the state was hoping to complete the process by last year.

The data collection project in an attempt to record and register the number of foreigners working in the state. It collects biometric data and records the documents of those who voluntarily came forward.

No enforcement agencies are involved to facilitate more volunteers in the process.

The data would be the first step in finding a solution for Sabah’s long-standing foreign and stateless community.