Rodzi (standing third from right) monitoring the deportation process at Sandakan Port.
SANDAKAN: Four hundred and ninety illegal immigrants were deported back to Zamboanga, Philippines via Sandakan Port on Tuesday night.
According to the secretary of National Security Council, Rodzi Md Saad, 309 of them were men, 141 women and 40 children aged between one month to 61 years old.
“This brings the number of illegal immigrants who have been deported to their home country from 1 January 2016 to 28 June 2016 to 13,145.
“From the total, 10,761 are Filipinos, 2,289 are Indonesians and 95 others are from other countries. The overall number of people deported since 1990 to last Tuesday night are 543,086,” he said after monitoring the deportation process at Sandakan Port on Tuesday night.
For the record, there are 4,989 illegal immigrants still detained at four temporary detention centres around the State with 1,666 in Kota Kinabalu, 1,353 in Papar, 1,049 in Sibuga and 921 in Tawau.
The effort to deport all these illegal immigrants is being continuously carried out by the National Security Council. It is done twice a week from Sandakan Port and once a week from Tawau.