“I dare both of them to repatriate these migrants,” Azis, who is also Warisan Youth chief, said on the sidelines of an event here.

“I would like to see whether they can be successful, or if it is just political rhetoric to gain support,” he added, warning that he would follow up on their progress at the next Parliament sitting.

The Sepanggar MP also urged Kitingan to stick to his words on sending the migrants home, saying it was time for the latter to “practise what he preached”.

He named issues such as the IMM13 pass issued by the immigration department to the Filipino refugees who escaped to Sabah following unrest in southern Philippines in the early 1970s, Surat Burung-Burung and census certificates as well as the problem of statelessness in Sabah.

If Kitingan worked with Yasin, he said, he would be able to request for access to home ministry files on the issues.

“I’m sure Yasin might have already been given a comprehensive briefing by ministry officials on the facts of the state’s migrant issues. Kitingan, too, can request for a similar briefing.

“Why not use the position to find out whether it is true that Warisan was the one who proposed the temporary Sabah pass, or being friendly to illegal immigrants?”

On Chief Minister Shafie Apdal’s suggestion that migrants be placed in an island settlement, he said the Warisan president had made the proposal in jest as he was told by immigration officers that the situation in the existing migrant settlement was getting out of control.

He spoke of “numerous” marriages between foreigners and locals which he blamed for the problem of statelessness in Sabah.

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