137 more deportees from Sabah arrive in Tawi-Tawi

COTABATO CITY, Philippines -  A batch of 137 undocumented Filipinos from Sabah arrived in Tawi-Tawi Thursday night, barely two days after 122 deportees  arrived in the province after Malaysian authorities forced them out of the oil-rich island state.

The 137 deportees, among them pre-school children, were ferried from Sabah by a small sea vessel, the Mideast Express II, reportedly chartered by the Malaysian government.

Laisa Alamia, executive secretary of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said the ARMM’s Humanitarian Emergency Action and Relief  Team (HEART), and Tawi-Tawi Gov. Nurbert Sahali are now attending to the needs of the latest batch of deportees, almost all of them ethnic Southern Mindanao Muslims.

Alamia said they are expecting more undocumented Filipinos to arrive soon from Sabah with Malaysia’s renewed crackdown on illegal aliens in the island and other areas within its territory.

The latest batch of deportees arrived from Sabah past 9 p.m. Thursday  and was  given food and hygiene kits by a joint relief team composed of ARMM-HEART volunteers and employees of the Tawi-Tawi provincial government.

The inter-agency ARMM-HEART, which is supervised by  ARMM  Gov. Mujiv Hataman, has facilitated the return to their respective provinces of some of the 122 deportees that arrived in Tawi-Tawi two days earlier.

“Their situation is very saddening. The government is doing everything to alleviate them from their sad plight. In less than three days, almost 300 undocumented Filipinos arrived in Tawi-Tawi from Sabah,"  Hataman said.

Hataman released P200,000  on Tuesday, while in Bongao, the capital town of Tawi-Tawi, for the fare of the 122  deportees on their way to their respective provinces.

Of the 122 deportees that arrived Tuesday night, 44 are from different island towns in Tawi-Tawi, 18 are from Basilan, 37 are ethnic Tausogs from Sulu, eight are from Zamboanga City, while the rest are from areas outside of ARMM.

Alamia said the 137 deportees that arrived in Bongao Thursday nightare now undergoing documentation before their return to their provinces.