Pakistani tries to sneak in with deportees

ZAMBOANGA CITY — A Pakistani man was arrested trying to sneak into this city along with hundreds of illegal Filipino workers who were deported from Malaysia, a Navy official said yesterday.

The Pakistani was among a group of more than 500 Filipinos who were picked up from Malaysia by a Philippine Navy ship, the Bacolod, which brought them to this city yesterday, regional Navy chief Commodore Ernesto de Leon said.

During a security check of the deportees, a man identified as a Pakistani national was found.

The otherwise unidentified man is now being held pending further investigation, he added.

Large numbers of Filipinos who were living in Malaysia have been deported in recent weeks after Kuala Lumpur imposed tough laws under which anyone found guilty of illegal entry or harboring illegal immigrants face a mandatory six months in jail and caning.

Philippine officials have warned that in the confusion of the mass deportations, outlaws or suspected Islamic militants might slip into the country with the returning Filipinos.

The southern Philippines has long been a battleground pitting the government and the Christian majority of this country, against Muslim separatists who consider the south their ancestral home. — AFP, Roel Pareño