KOTA KINABALU: The Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) government will not stop anyone from donating to the illegal immigrants (PATIs) who were affected by the pandemic.
“In principle, the State Government would only provide assistance to those with citizenship status.
“However, if there are any non-governmental organisations (NGOs) or members of the public who want to help the PATIs, the government will not stop them from doing so,” said Sabah’s official Covid-19 spokesperson Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun.
Masidi was referring to a recent report on illegal immigrants putting up white flags to seek food assistance.
In a statement on Friday, Masidi revealed that the Sabah Immigration Department had conducted an inspection at Bukit Bantayan Kiansom, Inanam.
The department found that seven white flags were seen in the area.
Masidi said that the phone numbers and details of the people who wanted to apply for food assistance were attached to the flags.
It was later discovered that the seven applicants were undocumented Filipinas in their 50s, who each have families with six to nine children.
Phone interviews with the women revealed that they are running out of food supply as their husbands, who are the sole breadwinners, are stuck in Kota Belud due to the lockdown restrictions.
In a statement on July 14, Sabah DAP secretary Chan Foong Hin had asked the GRS government about how it will deal with the planting of white flags by undocumented immigrants along the roads in Sabah.
Chan had said that he received information from local residents of numerous reports and photographs of white flags being planted by the roadside.