KUANTAN: The Home Ministry will launch an investigation into the alleged existence of illegal Cambodian immigrants at several settlements in Pekan.
Deputy Home Minister Datuk Mohd Azis Jamman said the ministry will instruct the relevant authorities including the Immigration Department to investigate and verify if the allegations were real.
“At the moment, we do not have much information on the issue so we will have to investigate... we will check the claims.
“Yes, the relevant departments will be instructed to check on it (allegations),” he told reporters after opening the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency’s 14th Anniversary Celebrations at Sultan Ahmad Shah Maritime Academy (AMSAS) here today.
Azis was asked to comment on reports that Champa Muslims or Cham Muslims who fled Cambodia in the late 1970s have ended up as refugees in Pahang and that some of them were living in Pekan without proper documents.
It was reported that a majority of them did not have identification documents, while some possessed United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees cards, red identity cards and working permits (to live in Malaysia).
The matter came to light after 11-year-old Siti Masitah Ibrahim, whose decomposed body was found near some bushes in Tanjung Medang Kemahang in Pekan on Feb 9.
Siti Masitah’s parents — Ibrahim Ali, 39, and Solihah Abdullah, 35, — along with the 23-year-old suspect who is now remanded at the Pekan police headquarters, do not have identification documents or permanent residence cards.
The girl’s body was found in a badly decomposed state in an oil palm plantation. She had gone missing on Jan 30.
Cham Muslims are those who escaped from Khmer Rouge atrocities in Cambodia in the 1970s and ended up in Malaysia, with some choosing Pahang to start a new life with refugee status.