SANDAKAN: The Immigration Department (JIM) today deported a total of 650 illegal immigrants from the Philippines who were detained at the Papar Immigration depot to be deported.

Immigration deputy director-general of (operations) Jafri Embak Taha said all the illegal immigrants aged between one and 82 years were sent from the Port of Sandakan to the Port of Zamboanga City in the Philippines using a vessel MV Antonia 1.

He said the children in the repatriation were accompanied by their parents and guardians and up to today (Oct 3), a total of 3,418 Filipino national detainees had been deported to their country via sea and air transport.

“The frequency of the process of repatriation of illegal immigrants is also subject to the Philippine embassy in speeding up the documentation process in issuing travel documents to enable the detainees to return to their country of origin,” he said here today.

Jafri Embak said employers who employed foreign workers were also reminded to ensure that all their workers had valid passports to work in Sabah.

He said all individuals holding social visit passes for the purpose of travelling were also warned not to abuse the pass as they could face prosecution and get blacklisted to re-enter Sabah and Malaysia if they violated the conditions of the pass.