Abstract
Border security is an essential component of Malaysia’s defence and security policy. During the COVID-19 outbreak, Malaysia’s border security management was tested with the increase of illegal entry into the country. The central argument of this paper is that, whilst Movement Control Order (MCO), or lockdown as it is more commonly known, aims to restrict movement, this limited movement was exploited for illegal entries into the country, leading to the establishment of the National Task Force (NTF), which coordinated various enforcement agencies to safeguard Malaysian territory. On this ground, this paper aims to analyse the role of the NTF in responding to increasing illegal activities amidst the pandemic. The discussion is divided into: (a) identifying illegal entries during the pandemic; (b) the impact of illegal entries to border management in Malaysia; (c) examining the roles of the NTF in responding to the illegal activities; and (d) the impact of the NTF in border security management in Malaysia. As a preliminary study, this paper only uses secondary data collection in addressing the problem statement. Keywords: National task force; COVID-19 pandemic; Illegal activities; Illegal immigrants; Border security managemen
Highlights
The world is facing its greatest global health challenge
This paper argues that, whilst the Movement Control Order (MCO), or lockdown as it is better known, aims to ‘restrict movement’, ‘reduce contact’, and further ‘isolate the virus’ in Malaysia, the pandemic environment has been exploited by illegal groups
This paper explicitly examines the COVID-19 impact on border security management in Malaysia by revealing the illegal entries into the country during the pandemic
Summary
The world is facing its greatest global health challenge. The COVID-19 virus was believed to have emerged in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, and by March 2020, it had escalated and spread to every part of the world. The World Health Organisation (WHO) labelled COVID-19 a pandemic because of its infectious nature and alarming death levels within the human population. It is transmitted through contact and attacks respiratory systems, eventually causing death. Many restrictions were put into place to eliminate human contact worldwide (Ho 2020). In Malaysia, when these restrictions were implemented, it impacted the economic wellbeing and challenged the border security in the country. As a consequence, this situation was exploited for other crimes to flourish. Crime is a business in the shadow economy that thrives in conditions of lax security
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