KOTA KINABALU: Eleven individuals, including three Malaysians, who were detained after they were suspected of entering Philippine waters unknowingly last Sunday, will be flown to Manila tomorrow.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said they would be taken to Manila for documentation process before they could be deported to their country of origin by the Philippine authorities.
“Four other Malaysians were still detained in the southern Philippines to facilitate investigations to ascertain the owners of the boats,” he told reporters after attending the 2024 Convention on Combating Human Trafficking and Forced Labour officiated by Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor here today.
Last Sunday, Philippine authorities detained 15 individuals, including seven Malaysians and eight Chinese nationals, on suspicion of illegally entering the country’s waters.
Quoting a Philippines News Agency report, Philippine Immigration Bureau Commissioner Norman Tansingco in a statement said those individuals were detained in the waters of Sitangkai, near Tawi-Tawi in the southern region of the country, after being found to have entered Philippine territory on two speedboats and did not have valid travel documents.
About the convention, Saifuddin said the collaborative effort between the Home Ministry, Ministry of Human Resources and the Sabah government depicts a strategic synergy between the federal and state governments to deal with the issue of human trafficking and forced labour in a more effective and targeted manner.
“Through the Main Committee on the Management of Foreigners in Sabah, which is jointly chaired by me and the Sabah Chief Minister, several important discussions have been held in dealing with the issue of illegal immigrants (PTI).
“Among the decisions that have been taken is to continue the digitalisation of data on foreigners in Sabah, which aims to solve the problem of diversified identification documents as well as to improve the management of foreigners in Sabah in a more effective and systematic manner,” he added.
