KOTA KINABALU: A syndicate is selling government application forms with the Parti Warisan Sabah logo to cheat illegal immigrants into believing they will be legalised.

Deputy Home Minister Datuk Azis Jamman said the syndicate is preying on gullible illegal immigrants who were ready to pay for false documents in hopes they will be able to legalise their stay in the state.

Azis, who is the party’s Youth chief, said Warisan has never issued any documents though such claims are being spread on social media.

“Where in the world do government documents have political party logos,” he said in questioning the motives of those making allegations via various social media platforms including WhatsApp.

“We believe that it was done by a syndicate trying to make profits by coming out with such false documents to be sold to desperate illegal immigrants not knowing that they are being cheated,” he said Thursday (May 23).

However, Azis said he was unaware of the price of the documents being sold by the syndicate and that the party would be lodging a police report.

Azis said that as Deputy Home Minister, he could confirm that there was no exercise to register illegal immigrants either through the Immigration Department or the National Registration Department (NRD).

He added that the documents being “sold” were using the old NRD logo that is no longer being used by the department.

“We believe the syndicate is smearing the name of the party and its leaders,” he said, urging the people who have any information on the syndicate to immediately inform the police.

Azis also asked the Opposition to stop harping on claims that Warisan was giving out documents to illegal immigrants that were widely spread through social media.

“The Opposition's baseless claims are spread on social media and now syndicates are taking advantage of it,” he said.

“Whatever migrant issues faced now were left by the previous Sabah Barisan Nasional government and was now being cleaned up by Warisan under the due process of the laws of the country,” he added.