The detainees boarding the ferry bound for Zamboanga City in the Philippines.
KOTA KINABALU: A total of 568 undocumented immigrants from the Philippines have been deported to their country of origin by the Immigration Department from the east coast district of Sandakan.
The deportees, who were held at the Sandakan and Tawau immigration depots, were sent home on the ferry MV Antonia 1 bound for Zamboanga City port on Thursday (July 20).
Sabah Immigration director Datuk Sharifah Sitti Saleha Habib Yusoff said the group comprised 392 men, 143 women and 33 children.
“All the children deported were accompanied by their parents and custodians, who were also sent home,” she said, in a statement here on Friday (July 21).
“As of July 20 this year, a total of 4,730 detainees have been deported to their countries of origin either through sea or air transport,” she added.
She said these detainees had violated various immigration offences under the Immigration Act 1959/63 and Immigration Regulations 1963.
The punishment for the detainees was meted under the Immigration Act as well as the country’s legal process, including up to the deportation phase.
As such, Sharifah reminded all foreign nationals to ensure they had valid travel documents or work permits to work in Sabah before entering the state.
“All the enforcement agencies in Sabah will not hesitate to take strict action against those who do not follow the rules,” she warned.
She said the latest deportation was part of an on-going exercise by the department on foreign detainees held at immigration depots statewide.
Towards this end, she expressed the department’s appreciation to all parties involved in the exercise particularly the Sabah government, the Philippines Embassy in Kuala Lumpur and the police, among others.
Sharifah added that the department was committed towards intensifying efforts to weed out illegal immigrants as well as their deportation from the country.
She said the deportation will only be carried out after the detainees served their punishment under the law and on getting confirmation of their nationalities from the embassies of their respective countries.
