240 illegals deported to Indonesia

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The illegal immigrants waiting to board a ferry to Nunukan, Indonesia during the deportation process yesterday.

TAWAU: A total number of 240 illegal immigrants from Indonesia were deported yesterday while another 82 will be deported on June 5.

Sabah National Security Council director SH Siti Saleha Habib Yussof in a statement said the deportation was the 15th and 16th series via the sea route for this year that involved Indonesian and Philippine citizens with a total of 3,753 illegals being deported including from India, China, Pakistan and Vietnam that were deported by air.

Since 1990, she said through the initiative taken in collaboration with the Immigration Department of Malaysia (JIM), a total of 594,920 illegal immigrants had been deported.

Yesterday morning at the Tawau Ferry Terminal, 121 illegal immigrants were deported which consisted of 80 men, 31 women and 10 children, while the remaining number of 119 were sent back later in the afternoon.

All of the deportees were from the Temporary Detention Center (PTS) here before they were sent back to the port of Nunukan, Indonesia, she said in a press statement yesterday.

According to her, the initiative received the approval from the Disaster Operations Control Centre on May 30, this year after a meeting which was in accordance with the recent announcement by Senior Minister for Security, Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

She said before the deportation process, Covid-19 tests were conducted on the deportees according to the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) as instructed by the government due to the current pandemic. Social-distancing was also supervised during the process.
She thanked all the agencies involved in helping to make the deportation process a success.