Over 100 Sabah deportees arrive in Tawi-Tawi

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – More than a hundred more deportees from Sabah, Malaysia arrived last Tuesday in Bongao town in Tawi-Tawi, according to authorities.

Thousands of undocumented Filipinos, majority of them from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, have been deported by the Malaysian government in the past two years as part of its crackdown on illegal aliens in the mineral-rich Sabah island state.

Lawyer Laisa Alamia, ARMM regional executive secretary, said the 127 deportees have all been fed and examined for ailments by relief workers from the regional government and the office of Tawi-Tawi Gov. Nurbert Sahali.

Alamia said 90 of the deportees are men, 21 are women of different ages, and 16 are children.

Alamia said the deportees have all been provided with hygiene kits by workers of the ARMM’s Humanitarian Emergency Assistance Team.