Malaysia repatriates 800 Filipinos from Sabah to Zamboanga City

A group of 800 Filipinos, including 122 children under the age of 12, arrived at the Zamboanga City Port on October 30 following deportation from Malaysia. The deportees had been held in detention centres in Sandakan, Papar, and Tawau.

The group consisted of 589 adult men, 89 adult women, 64 boys, and 58 girls. The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Field Office IX provided immediate assistance, including meals, before transferring the individuals to the Processing Center for Displaced Persons for further assessment.

This arrival is part of a larger repatriation drive. Sabah Immigration director Datuk Sh Sitti Saleha Habib Yussof stated that Malaysia plans to conduct six more weekly repatriation exercises, each involving approximately 800 people, to alleviate overcrowding in detention depots. Including a previous group of 269 repatriated on October 27, a total of 1,069 Filipinos were sent home from Sabah in a single week. So far this year, 5,357 Filipinos have been among the 7,490 detainees of various nationalities repatriated from Sabah.