Malaysia Imported TB

Malaysia need to tighten controls against illegal immigrations - the ineffectiveness of current controls has led to an increase in the spread of disease. This follows a claim by a former director of the Institute of Respiratory Medicine, Abdul Razak Muttalif, that infectious diseases such as tuberculosis (TB), leptospirosis and rabies were making a comeback.

Two of the contributing factors were an increase in the number of illegal immigrants and the policy of making it compulsory for hospitals to report on them when they seek treatment. Once the illegals are here, the problem is exacerbated because of the bad policy. This essentially drives infectious disease sufferers underground, making it impossible for authorities to track and stop outbreaks of diseases such.

There is no reliable record of the number of illegal immigrants in the country. Estimates have put the figure at between one million and four million.

Klang MP Charles Santiago said he had heard of cases of employers bribing immigration officials to allow them to keep their undocumented workers or hire new ones. State immigration departments might not be the ones involved in the issuing of new permits or extension of permits, but they close their eyes because they are paid off by companies who are using undocumented workers.

He cited a Sinar Harian report in 2014 which quoted Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi as saying that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) had placed the immigration department at the top of its list of agencies taking bribes.

Budget 2016, tabled by the prime minister in October 2015, saw the health ministry receiving RM23.031 billion or 8.6% of the total budget, RM269 million less than the previous year’s allocation.