Malaysia To Repatriate 800 Filipino Detainees Weekly In Six Operations
SANDAKAN (Sabah, Malaysia), Oct 29 (Bernama) -- Malaysian Immigration Department in Sabah will carry out six large-scale repatriation operations involving undocumented Filipino migrants detained at immigration depots in the state, sending them back to their country of origin.
Its director, Sh Sitti Saleha Habib Yussof, said the plan involved repatriating 800 detainees each week, starting Thursday, to ease congestion at immigration depots and facilitate enforcement operations.
“We also hope that the embassies concerned, particularly the Philippine Embassy, will cooperate by issuing travel documents to detainees as soon as possible to enable their swift repatriation.
“Once they are handed over by the authorities or have completed their sentences, we will repatriate them promptly. For Filipino detainees, if possible, we want them to leave Sabah within a month,” she told reporters after inspecting the repatriation of foreign nationals at Sandakan Port here Thursday.
She said a total of 5,357 Filipino detainees had been repatriated to their country of origin to date, including 800 detainees from the Tawau, Sandakan and Papar Immigration Depots who were sent home via Sandakan Port Thursday.
The 800 Filipino detainees comprised 590 men, 88 women, 64 boys and 58 girls, aged between 16 days and 83 years. They were repatriated by ship to the port of Zamboanga City in the Philippines.
On Oct 27, another 269 Filipino detainees from the Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan and Tawau Immigration Depots were repatriated via the Immigration, Customs, Quarantine and Security (iCQS) Complex in Lahad Datu to Bongoa Port in the Philippines, bringing the total number of Filipino detainees repatriated this week to 1,069, she said.
Meanwhile, Sh Sitti Saleha said the Sabah Immigration Department had repatriated a total of 7,490 undocumented migrants of various nationalities, including Indonesians, Chinese and Vietnamese, from the beginning of the year up to Thursday.
She added that the Sandakan Immigration Depot also repatriated a Nepalese man, an Indian man and two Pakistani men Thursday. They were flown from Sandakan Airport to Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA2) before continuing their journeys to their respective countries of origin.
-- BERNAMA
