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TAWAU: The Immigration Department detained 61 foreign nationals, including tourists suspected of abusing social visit passes by working at a resort construction site in Semporna during Operation Mahir on Saturday.

Sabah Immigration Director Datuk Sh Sitti Saleha Habib Yussof said some tourists came to travel and were supposed to have returned to their home countries in May but are still in Malaysia.

She said they were among those detained in a raid on two construction sites that used foreign labour on Mataking Island and the waters off Bum-Bum Island.

"The detainees consisted of 36 citizens of the People's Republic of China and 25 Filipinos aged between 19 and 65 who are suspected of various offences such as not having identification documents, overstaying their visas, and abusing social visit passes," she told a press conference here on Sunday.