KOTA KINABALU: A total of 285 illegal immigrants including infants were among those deported to the Philippines from Lahad Datu on Thursday (Oct 22).
These immigrants who have completed various sentences, were sent back to their home country via the Lahad Datu Immigration, Customs, Quarantine, and Security Complex (ICQS) to Bagao port in the Philippines as part of ongoing initiatives to rid the state of illegal immigrants.
“These Filipinos were detained at the Kota Kinabalu and Papar depot prior to this,” said the Sabah Immigration Department, adding that this latest exercise involved 129 men, 71 women and 85 children, bringing the total number of deported Filipinos to 4,288 people so far this year.
The department said in a statement that children were accompanied by their parents or guardians, as per standard operating procedures.
It said that other than Filipinos, they had also deported a total of 1,789 Indonesians, 137 Pakistanis, 141 China nationals (the most recent involving two on Oct 20), 29 Vietnamese and 33 of other nationalities.
“This brings the total number of people deported to 6,417 to date this year,” it said, adding that all had served their respective sentences before deportation and all possessed travel documents to allow them to be eligible for the programme.
The department urged the public to remain vigilant and to inform the authorities if they suspect or know of anyone harbouring, protecting or hiring illegal immigrants.
They can do so by filing their complaints via the public complaints management system (SISPAA) at https://spab.gov.my or the online inquiry system (SPO) at https://eapp.imi.gov.my.
