SABAH RCI A large number of those caught carrying out fishing with the use of explosives off the coast of Sabah are foreigners living in the state, the royal commission of inquiry (RCI) on immigrants in Sabah heard today.

Sabah Fisheries Department Legal and Enforcement Branch head Mohd Yusoff Anthony Abdullah said of those prosecuted for possessing bombed fish, 209 were Filipinos and 148 were locals.

Mohd Yusoff said many of those caught are holders of the IMM13, the document issued to Filipino refugees residing in Malaysia.

pulau betong illegal fishing trawler"The fish bombs are inexpensive. They only cost some ringgit but when used, they can get one a haul of more than 100kg of fish," he testified before the panel at the Kota Kinabalu court complex.

If the fish bombing method is used by the bigger boats, Mohd Yusoff said, a haul of up to 1,000kg could be obtained.

He said the bombs are made by filling a bottle with ammonium nitrate, to which a detonator and a fuse are attached.

"The detonator only costs less than RM10 and these are smuggled in from neighbouring countries," he said.

The bombs, Mohd Yusoff said, not only destroy the coral reefs, where the fishes breed, but are also a danger to divers, who are mostly tourists.

Another illegal way of fishing, he said, was for these fishermen to dive underwater and spray selected fishes with sodium cyanide, a potent poison.

Sodium cyanide used to stun fish

"The sodium cyanide is diluted with water and is sprayed to stun, but not kill, the fish. This is normally done to rare fishes, which will then be exported as ornamental fish," he said.

However, Mohd Yusoff said, a sample of these fish was sent to the Chemistry Department, but it could not detect any cyanide in the fish. Therefore, his branch could not carry on with the prosecution.

The bombed fish, he said were normally sold to markets and even to factories that make fish ball, though there was no evidence that they were unsafe to consume.

"However, their protein quality is poor as the internal organs and bones of the fish are disintegrated and they become rotten fast," he said.

In the prosecution cases that his branch handles, Mohd Yusoff added, there had been instances of foreigners repeating their offences under different namess when brought court.

'More men marry foreigners'

Meanwhile, National Registration Department (NRD) Marriage Division chief Lee Hin Haw testified that three times more Malaysian men were marrying foreign women than the number of Malaysian women marrying foreign men in Sabah.

"Between 2008 and 2012 in Sabah, 1,121 Malaysian men married foreign women while 429 Malaysian women married foreign men," Lee said.

He added that there was also a difference in preferences, with the local men inclined towards women from Indonesia, the Philippines, China, Singapore and Vietnam.

However, Lee added, women were more inclined to Singaporean, Chinese, Australian and British men.

Another witness to take the stand was construction company manager Chong Fook Soon, who said about 30 percent of his 80-strong workforce were foreigners from the Philippines and Indonesia.

"We hire them not because there's a shortage of workers but because of their experience. Some are very good mechanics and can even overhaul a lorry engine," Chong said.

'Foreigners more reliable'

He said the foreigners were more reliable, as the locals sometimes did not turn up for work or tended to hop jobs.

However, Chong said, the local workers were still preferable his his company had to fork out RM3,500 for the work permit of each foreign employee. All the foreign workers in his company, he added, were legal.

He concurred there were other companies that hired illegal immigrants and that this was because the construction industry could not survive without foreigner workers.

"For us, we do okay, but for construction involving buildings, they need a lot of workers," Chong said.

A total of eight witnesses testified today. So far 147 witnesses have testified since the the RCI began its hearing in January this year.

Foreigners behind bulk of fish bombings, RCI told