DOLE projects Sabah deportees to double to 12,000

ZAMBOANGA CITY — The Malaysian government is expected to double its deportation of illegal Filipino migrants to 12,000 repatriates, a senior labor official said here.

The figure is twice the number of deportees sent back to the country in the first semester, according to Undersecretary Lourdes Trasmonte of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).

Trasmonte had a meeting with Mayor Celso Lobregat who was presiding a conference on the impact of the influx of deportees. The city is hosting thousands of Filipino deportees dropped by the Malaysian immigration.

DOLE acting regional director Yahyah Centi also disclosed that Malaysia would increase the number of deportees.

Centi said some of the 12,000-projected number of undocumented Filipinos, 80 percent of them are 18 to 59 years of age.

Centi said DOLE is profiling each deportee through its one-stop processing centers for their reintegration into the mainstream and would provide them with livelihood activities.

Lobregat, however, said the action plan is bound to fail since thousands of Filipinos who have availed of the program returned to Malaysia and ended up being deported again.

Lobregat said only few of the deportees have availed of the program in securing their documents for possible return to Malaysia. – Roel Pareño