SANDAKAN: The Immigration Department deported 226 Filipino illegal immigrants by sea, using the vessel MV Antonia 1, from Sandakan Port to Zamboanga, Philippines, on Wednesday.
The group - 153 men, 56 women and 17 children under 12 – were sent back after leaving the Sandakan Immigration Depot.
Sabah Immigration Director Datuk Sitti Saleha Habib Yussof said this was the seventh deportation exercise so far this year.
The children were sent back with their parents and guardians on the vessel MV Antonia, she said in a statement, Thursday.
“As of May, we have sent a total of 2,013 Filipinos home via sea and air,” she said.
Sitti Saleha said the detainees, ranging in age from two years to 73, had committed various immigration offences and served the required sentences before being sent home.
She added that the deportation exercises would continue.
