KUALA LUMPUR: The 2024 Budget was comprehensive and the allocation for the Home Ministry will allow it to set out its plans for next year.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said the ministry was particularly pleased with the granting of RM10 million to extend the Baitul Mahabbah programme under the Immigration Department to provide temporary places for foreign children.
"We are very pleased as we do not intend to place children in detention centres. Hence, the allocation will allow us to establish three more centres next year.
"One centre was established in Nilai last month and another will be launched in Sabah in November, followed by Sarawak and the Peninsula.
"With this, the ministry through the Immigration Department, the People's Volunteer Corps (Rela) and the Council of Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants (MAPO) can realise the plans we have in the pipeline," he said when met by reporters after the tabling of next year's budget in Parliament, today.
Earlier, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim announced that the government had initiated the Baitul Mahabbah programme under the Immigration Department to provide temporary placement for undocumented foreign children.
The government will also expand the programme to include three more temporary placement centres, one each in Sabah, Sarawak, and the Peninsula, with an allocation of RM10 million, next year.
Meanwhile, Saifuddin added that other recommendations that were put forth by the ministry were also included in the tabling of the budget, including border control elements, prison reform, assets for enforcement agencies such as the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency, and amendments to the Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983.
At the same time, with the expansion of the Single Border Agency programme, Saifuddin explained that a total of 150 national entry points will no longer be managed by multiple agencies but will be placed under a single supervisory agency, thus streamlining border control aspects.
