KOTA KINABALU: While the Sabah government is disputing the number of young Sabahans living as vagrants in Kuala Lumpur, the Catholic Archdiocesan Office for Human Development (AOHD) in Kuala Lumpur is feeding newcomers on a regular basis.
Carl D'Cunha, the officer in charge of AOHD, told a local daily reporter who visited Kuala Lumpur to research the story, that another group of six young Sabahans had shown up for free meals at their centre last week.
He said the men, aged between 23 and 28, were among nine jobless and homeless people from Sabah whom he met for the first time at the centre. The rest were Sarawakian women in their early 20s.
D'Cunha said that there are about 60 destitute Sabahans getting free meals and other assistance from AOHD.
The Sabah reporter said one of the Sabahans he had interviewed had claimed that there were between 300 and 400 homeless Sabahans living in Kuala Lumpur.
However, some of them are believed to have since secured jobs offered by companies which have come forward after the youths' plight was exposed in the media.
According to sources, many Sabahans caught in the same predicament are unwilling to reveal their circumstances to the authorities.
Meanwhile, Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman had reportedly said that a government team found only 20 or so young Sabahans living on the streets of Kuala Lumpur.
He said the team set up by the state government had reported back that there were fewer than 50 destitute Sabahans in the nation's capital.
He added that the state government had offered to pay the air fare of the jobless youths should they want to return to Sabah.
"We have offered… if they want to come home to Sabah, we will pay for their tickets and help them find jobs.”
Musa was speaking after receiving Malacca Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam at his official residence here on Saturday. Rustam had offered to give the Sabahans looking for employment in the peninsula, jobs in his state.
Mohd Ali also disclosed that a census carried out by Malaysia Umno Youth Town Affairs Secretariat had listed about 200 Sabahans in the peninsula, especially in the Klang Valley, as unemployed.
