DFA checking reports hundreds of Filipinos deported from Sabah

DFA spokesman Assistant Secretary Raul Hernandez. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is looking into reports that hundreds of Filipinos have been deported from Sabah, Malaysia due to a crackdown on foreign workers.

“Our embassy in Kuala Lumpur is still verifying these deportation reports,” DFA spokesman Raul Hernandez said in a text message Thursday.

A news report published in the same day said that almost 200 Filipinos have been deported and are staying in an evacuation center in Tawi-Tawi province in Mindanao.

Earlier reports said that thousands of Filipinos have already been deported.

In January, Hernandez said that “for the period of January 1 to 21, a total of 1,988 Filipinos were able to leave Malaysia.”

“From January 21 to 27, the Philippine Embassy in Kuala Lumpur escorted 188 illegally staying Filipinos to the Immigration Department to process their exit passes,” he said.

The Malaysian government is cracking down on illegal foreign workers.

Philippine and Malaysian relations were strained on February 2013 after an armed group of supporters of Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III went into Sabah to revive their claim on the Malaysian province.

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