SANDAKAN: Six women from the Philippines were arrested by the Marine Police at Tinosa, mile 7 waters here for attempting to enter Sandakan illegally to work.
Commanding officer of the Sandakan Marine Police, ACP Mohd Yazib Bin Abd Aziz, said the Marine Intelligence Unit chased after a boat after receiving information around 2.30am yesterday.
The boat was heading towards Sungai Tinosa 1 mile 7 here when it lost control at Sungai Baru mile 7 and stranded near a swamp. The boatman jumped off and escaped into the swamp.
Six women aged between 20 and 38 were found in the boat. Three of them did not have self-identification documents while the three others had Philippine passports that were not stamped. They were arrested under Section 6(1)(c) of the Immigration Act 1959/63 while the boat and engine were seized.
Early investigation revealed that all the passengers had boarded a boat at Isabella, Basilan Philippines and headed to the Malaysia-Philippines border where they took a speedboat to Sandakan.
All the passengers did not make any payments to agents and they were promised jobs in Sabah.