Migrants: Close cooperation among enforcement agencies needed - Wan Junaidi

Support and close cooperation among the enforcement agencies is needed in efforts to prevent the influx of foreign migrants and refugees into this country.

Deputy Home Minister Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said if the agencies like the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA), Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) and Royal Malaysian Police could cooperate closely, the country's waters could be prevented from being encroached upon.

"This can be carried out successfully. They (refugees and asylum seekers) are not out to attack us," he told reporters when met at the Parliament lobby, Monday.

He was earlier asked whether the Home Ministry would intensify enforcement operations in Langkawi following the recent arrival of 1,158 Rohingya and Bangladeshi refugees on the resort island after a long boat journey from Myanmar and Bangladesh.

Wan Junaidi said the MMEA and RMN's assets had been deployed to the country's border waters to curb foreign migrants from slipping in, so as to safeguard the nation's peace and security.

Meanwhile, Junaidi hoped that the building of the security wall along the Kelantan, Kedah, Perlis and Kedah borders with Thailand could be implemented within the five-year 11th Malaysia Plan (11MP) period.

He said this measure was also to curb the smuggling of foreign migrants into Malaysia, hence the issue or security should be given attention, and likewise along the Sabah and Sarawak border areas.

Wan Junaidi said among the priorities under the 11MP was increasing the infrastructure of law enforcement agencies like housing and building new stations for the police force nationwide, besides combating the drug menace.

Asked on developments in the police investigations on former police commando Sirul Azhar Umar who is now in Australia, he said the investigations were on-going and as such, could not be disclosed so as not to disturb the investigations.