Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri challenged international news agency Al Jazeera to list down countries that give foreigners absolute freedom.
“They accused us of being racist but what we do is based on the law. I challenge them to point out a country which gives freedom to illegal immigrants.
“The immigration laws in most countries are the same as Malaysia’s, ” he said.
He was commenting on the issue of a documentary that was made by Al Jazeera that accused the Malaysian government of ‘acting cruelly’ against migrants and immigrants (PATI) during the RMCO period.
“And the allegations that said we unjustly imprison the PATI was not true, because not only is PATI locked up but the PKPD in other areas, including the tahfiz center, some villages in Hulu Langat are also locked up.
“… And every person in the PKPD confinement is screened including PATI, the government bears the cost of screening them.
“So it’s not fair to say that unfair treatment was done to them because they were locked up, because this policy and SOP is for anyone including Malaysians,” he said.
Additionally, the documentary also accused the government of carrying out racist MCO orders.
“Accusing our actions of being racist is not true, what we do is based on the law.
“Immigration is using the Immigration Act to arrest and detain those who do not have valid documents in our country or who do not have any documents at all,” he added.
Thus, Al Jazeera is being asked to apologize to Malaysians for the controversial issue.
Source: BERNAMA, BERNAMA TV