KOTA KINABALU: Over 200 undocumented people have been sent back to the Philippines in the Immigration Department’s latest deportation exercise.
The 226 Filipinos – 153 men, 56 women and 17 children under 12 – were sent back by air and sea routes after leaving the Sandakan Immigration Depot on Wednesday (May 8).
Sabah Immigration director Datuk Sitti Saleha Habib Yussof said this was the seventh deportation exercise so far this year.
The children were sent back with their parents and guardians on the vessel MV Antonia, she said in a statement on Thursday (May 9).
“As of May, we have sent a total of 2,013 Filipinos home via sea and air,” she said.
Sitti Saleha said the detainees, ranging in age from two years to 73, had committed various immigration offences and served the required sentences before being sent home.
She added that the deportation exercises would continue.
