Filipino deportees boarding a ferry bound for Zamboanga City.
KOTA KINABALU: A total of 653 Filipinos who were previously arrested for various immigration offences have been deported to their country of origin from Sabah’s Sandakan district on Wednesday (March 15).
Sabah Immigration director Datuk Sitti Saleha Habib Yusoff said the deportees comprised 439 men, 145 women and 69 children.
They were sent home onboard the MV Antonia 1 which left the Sandakan port for Zamboanga City port in the southern Philippines.
"The deportees were previously detained at the Kota Kinabalu, Papar and Tawau immigration depots," she said, in a statement on Wednesday.
"They had committed offences under the Immigration Act 1959/63 and Immigration Rules 1963," she added.
Towards this end, Sitti Saleha reminded foreign nationals to ensure they possessed valid travel documents or work permits, which enabled them to work in Sabah, before entering the country.
"All the enforcement agencies in the state will take stern action against those who were found flouting the law," she said, thanking various agencies and departments involved in the deportation process.
She said the Immigration Department remained committed to enforcing the law as well as sending home migrants who were undocumented or found to have broken the law.
She added detainees would only be deported after the authorities here obtained a confirmation of their nationality status from their respective embassies.
