KOTA KINABALU: Two detainees at the temporary detention centre in Sandakan yesterday told the Royal Commission of Inquiry that they slept on concrete floors in the centre.
Degon Amy from the Philippines and Nisa Rahman from Sulawesi said they were however treated well in the centre and got three square meals daily.
Degon, who was arrested and imprisoned for syabu possession, also told the Commission that he was being detained in the temporary detention centre since November last year after serving his sentence.
He is staying in a block with 170 other detainees while awaiting deportation, Degon said, adding that they have to share three toilets.
The youth, who said he was from Tawi Tawi, entered Sabah illegally in 2002 via Pulau Berhala off Sandakan.
Degon said he came with his uncle and paid 2,000 pesos for the boat ride from Bungau in The Philippines and they were dropped off at Pulau Berhala.
From Pulau Berhala, they were ferried to the Sandakan market via a 20-passenger speedboat, he said, adding that the people at the market were not bothered to see them disembarking from the boat.
From then, Degon worked as a mini bus conductor and was paid a daily wage of RM15 until he was arrested last year.
He told the Commission that the captain of the vessel they used from The Philippines confessed to the passengers that he was afraid of the law enforcement in Malaysia but they did not encounter any security forces on the journey here.
Meanwhile, Nisa told the panel that she paid a RM100 fare to travel from Sulawesi to Nunukan and another RM100 for the ride on a cargo ship from Nunukan to Tawau.
She arrived in Tawau in Oct 2011 and was brought to Sandakan where she was employed in an oil palm estate for a mere RM100 a month.
She also told the Commission that her salary was kept by her employer known only as Kassim, and the money would only be given to her when she returned to Sulawesi.
She said her salary in Kassim’s bank account amounted to RM3,500 now.
Asked where she got the money for her daily expenses as she did not receive her salary, Nisa said she asked from her friends.
In relating to the panel on how she got here, Nisa said when the cargo ship arrived near Tawau in Oct 2011, she and her friends were told to jump overboard and swim to shore, where she was greeted by a man named Irwan who took her to Sandakan.
According to Nisa, she was arrested on December 9 last year by the Immigration Department while traveling to Sandakan town from Mile 6 where she was staying and working.