App to secure tourists in Malaysia's Sabah state against kidnapping threats
A security chief also agrees drones can better secure the region neighbouring the southern Philippines.
SABAH: A security command in the Malaysian Borneo state of Sabah is planning to implement an app to ensure the safety of visitors in the state’s east coast against threats including kidnapping from the southern Philippines.
The Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom) said the app will make it easier for the agency to track the movement of visitors, saying the system is used in some developed countries to better protect tourists.
Esscom chief Victor Sanjos told Sabah media recently the app will be coordinated with the Sabah tourism ministry.
Tourists only need to scan the application and Esscom will know their movements.
"Tourists are the main assets in the Esszone, the influx of tourists benefits the economy in terms of demand for resorts, hotels, transport and restaurants. So, to ensure they are safe we (Esscom) have to know their movements,” Sanjos was quoted as saying.
"(When) They come in, we scan their mobile phones, so we know their movements and we can send our assets to survey and guarantee their safety.”
Victor said 54,795 tourists visited eastern Sabah in the first seven months of this year, compared with 31,619 in the same period last year, showing that tourists are increasingly confident of the level of security in the area.
Sanjos also supported the Sabah chief minister’s suggestion that drones be used to boost eastern Sabah’s security.
"This is important because the use of high-tech can speed up information in the field and to quickly relay instructions to the assets on the ground, which means no time wasted in executing action,” Sanjos reportedly said.
“We will propose the matter to the Chief Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs.”
The Sulu-Celebes Seas shared by Malaysia and the Philippines was for years a hotbed for kidnapping for ransom by the southern Philippine terror and bandit outfit, the Abu Sayyaf Group, and their affiliates.
The last kidnapping in eastern Sabah’s waters was of five Indonesian fishermen in January 2020 by the Abu Sayyaf Group.
Four of the hostages including a teenager were rescued in the southern Philippines by that nation’s government troops but one hostage died.
Sabah police recently extended a two-week curfew, started after the 2013 incursion by militants from the southern province of Sulu, in parts of eastern Sabah due to the still-existing kidnapping threat from the Abu Sayyaf Group.