KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia needs to build a wall at the border areas to deal with many issues involving transborder illegal activities.

Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said this was necessary as without a proper wall it would be difficult for any enforcement agencies to conduct surveillance.

Citing the example of the United States-Mexico border, Ahmad Zahid said despite the sophisticated wall placed at the border of the two countries, there were 11 million illegals in the US.

“Even with the wall, there are 11 million illegals in the US, what more if there’s no physical and solid wall? Not only humans can be smuggled but also firearms, drugs as well as subsidised items to other countries,” said Ahmad Zahid.

He said although such a project would be costly, the Cabinet has requested the Home Ministry to come up with a proposal paper on the matter.

“We have received five proposals to build the wall and the assets we need, and we will forward the proposals to the agencies involved to decide which wall system is the best to be implemented.”

The proposals will be tabled as soon as possible.

On surveillance at borders, Ahmad Zahid said the Cabinet had decided that it would involve the police and army personnel.

Last month, Deputy Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said the construction of a wall would probably be more effective in securing the border areas, as the security forces were incapable of monitoring more than 100 “rat trails” along the 700km border separating Malaysia and Thailand.

Ahmad Zahid also said that the Rohingya Muslims in Malaysia were not allowed to work in the country as it was against the law. He said there were no plans to issue work permits to the refugees.

“The Rohingya have no right to work. Even if they have UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) cards they are not allowed to work here. Not by law,” he said.

Malaysia, on humanitarian grounds, recently allowed more than 1,000 boat people comprising Rohingya Muslims and Bangladeshi migrants to come ashore after their boats were abandoned by people smugglers in the open sea. They were placed in a temporary shelter in Kedah.

In a joint statement after the ministerial meeting on irregular movement of people in Southeast Asia in Kuala Lumpur on May 20, Malaysia and Indonesia agreed to continue to provide humanitarian assistance to 7,000 migrants still at sea.

They also agreed to offer them temporary shelter provided that the resettlement and repatriation process will be done in one year by the international community.

Despite allowing the Rohingya to stay here, Malaysia is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugees Convention. As such, there is no legal mechanism in place to give the refugees any form of status. Because of this, most of them had to work illegally to feed their families.

The Rohingya were also used as cheap labour and vulnerable to ill treatment from their “employers”. They were faced with constant harassment and detention. The Rohingya have been seeking refuge in the country since the 1980s, with the UNHCR stating that there are 36,290 of them here (as of April 2014). There are perhaps a few thousand more unaccounted for. — The Malaysian Insider

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on June 5, 2015.