KOTA KINABALU: Sabah National Security Council (NSC) is set to deport 882 people back to their own countries in an ongoing effort to curb the undocumented immigrant problem in the state.
Sabah NSC director Sharifah Sitti Saleha Habib Yussof said the latest batch being deported on Thursday (Dec 12) comprises 763 Filipinos and 119 Indonesians.
“We are carrying out deportation exercises in stages as part of our efforts to overcome the problem.
“We have been carrying out such deportation exercises regularly and it has never been stopped at any point, ” she said in a statement Wednesday (Dec 11).
She said such operations were carried out with the Immigration Department, police, Health Department and other agencies under a special task force.
So far this year, the state NSC has coordinated the deportation of 12,237 undocumented immigrants to their home country, adding up to 590,351 people sent back since 1990.
The state government has been pressing for the arrests and deportation of clear-cut cases of illegal immigrants in the state.
The Federal Government has proposed the issuance of the Sabah Temporary Pass (PSS), to start in June, to sort out some 600,000 “inland foreigners” holding various documents including refugee and census cards.