Drones a welcome feature in border security arsenal

REDS president Capt Zainuddin (left) explaining the drone features to Wan Junaidi (right).

By Malcolm Lau

KUCHING, Dec 27: The use of drones and other advance monitoring technologies for Sarawak’s long border would be most welcome.

“I’ve always believed in technologies including advanced scanners at every check-point, port, airport entering our country so that illegal items will be detected,” Santubong MP Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said during his press conference with Radio Emergency Drones Sarawak (REDS) on Friday morning.

He cited technologies such as facial recognition linked to the database of other like-minded countries for criminals and terrorists entering Malaysia.

According to Wan Junaidi, he said that the consistency with the United Nations Convention on transborder crimes will able to prevent the entry of known criminals including human traffickers to our country.

“For the long land border like Sarawak, I still believe in human presence and the speed of human response to the monitoring like a drone,” he added.

“I would like to urge the Ministry of Home Affairs (KDN) to consider the establishment of border scouts to assist the enforcement agencies like General Operation Forces (GOF) and the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) and the army along the long stretch of the Sarawak porous border without physical barriers,” Wan Junaidi pointed out. —DayakDaily