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MANILA, Philippines—The Department of Foreign Affairs has sent a seven-man consular team to Sabah to help legalize the stay of thousands of Filipinos in the Malaysian state.
At a press conference, DFA Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Esteban Conejos said the team was sent before August 7, the start of Malaysia's "large-scale" operation against illegal migrants, and will stay in Sabah until October.
Aside from members of his staff, the team is composed of personnel from the consular office and the overseas labor office.
Asked if the move will jeopardize the Philippine claim over Sabah, he said: "I am just a poor OFW (overseas Filipino worker) dispatcher. It's up to [the higher authorities]."
Conejos said Malaysia has 11,000 undocumented foreign workers, 4,000 of whom have already been screened. Of the 4,000, 397 undocumented Filipinos, 106 Indonesians, and one Brunei national have been identified.
He thanked the Malaysian government for the orderly and humane arrest of undocumented Filipinos. "Based on the reports that we've received, there have been no untoward incidents," he said.
The number of undocumented foreign workers in Sabah is estimated to reach millions, with Filipinos numbering in the hundreds of thousands. Estimates range from 200,000 to 500,000.
The regularization of undocumented foreign workers and the sending of a consular team to Sabah are part of the agreement reached by Conejos and other Philippine officials and their Malaysian counterparts during the fifth meeting of the Philippines-Malaysia Working Group on Migrant Workers last month.
The regularization process, Conejos said, involves having the employer registering his foreign worker with the Malaysian immigration office, which in turn issues an acknowledgment receipt. He said the Philippine embassy then issues these undocumented workers their passports.
During the two-day meeting in July, both countries also agreed not to detain children unaccompanied by parents and to deport only those who are medically fit to travel. They also agreed to institute long-term solutions to the problems of cross-border travel, work, and migration, including a proposed bilateral Border Pass Agreement and the possible deployment of Malaysian immigration attachés at the One-Stop Processing Center in Zamboanga.
These long-term solutions will be discussed in the still to be scheduled Joint Committee Meeting.
After that July meeting, Malaysian Ambassador to the Philippines Dato Ahmad Rasidi Hazizi said his government still welcomes Filipino workers despite the crackdown on undocumented Filipinos nationals.
In 2003, diplomatic ties between the two countries hit a snag following the alleged rape of a 12-year-old girl by Malaysian police inside a Sabah detention center, and the deaths of two Filipino babies who were among those deported.
Malaysia ranks as the Philippines seventh trading partner, seventh export market, and eighth import supplier, with total bilateral trade amounting to $4,743.43 million in 2007.
A Philippine claim for sovereignty over Sabah has laid dormant for decades in the international courts.
