387 deportees from Sabah arrive in Zamboanga City

The 387 undocumented Filipinos from Sabah, Malaysia. Photo courtesy of Jabatan Imigresen Malaysi

ZAMBOANGA CITY (MindaNews / 04 November) — Three hundred eighty-seven Filipino deportees from Sabah in Malaysia arrived in Zambonga City on Thursday night, the Department of Social Welfare and Development Regional Office (DSWD) Region 9 said.

DSWD 9 Information Officer Ivan Salvador told MindaNews that 365 of the adult deportees are males and 14 are females, and eight are minors.

“They are presently billeted at the Processing Center for Displaced Persons or PDCP in Mampang barangay (in Zamboanga City),” Salvador said.

“They were provided (by DSWD) with hot meals, hygiene essentials, temporary shelter and transportation assistance,” he said.

“Some other assistance may include medical and hospitalization as the need arises,” he added.

Abs, in his early thirties, said he and other deportees boarded M/V Antonia of Aleson Shipping Lines on Tuesday, following days of being held at the Tawau Immigration Deportation Center in Tawau, Sabah as undocumented Filipinos.

“We entered Malaysia without proper documents, no passports or proper IDs. The others had fake passports,” he said in Tagalog.

“Most of these Filipinos entered Sandakan and Sabah in batches through the southern backdoor, via Tawi-Tawi, Sulu, and Basilan. They arrived in Malaysia with no legal papers or identity cards. Most of them worked through a network of kinship and mixing in with the local residents. They continue to believe that Sabah belongs to the Sultanate of Sulu,” Capt. Benzar Mukarram, Zamboanga City Maritime Police Commander said.

Tawi-Tawi often serves as the jump-off point of Filipinos going to Sabah being the island nearest to the Malaysian territory, which the Sultanate of Sulu continues to claim as its own based on historical records.

Three hundred fifty-five deportees also arrived in the city on October 20.

Salvador said the DSWD, Bureau of Immigration and other agencies are conducting a profiling to determine the addresses of the deportees in the Philippines. (Frencie L. Carreon/MindaNews)