KL rounds up 600 illegal immigrants

KL rounds up 600 illegal immigrants

KUALA LUMPUR (AP): Malaysian police intensified a crackdown on illegal immigrants, rounding up more than 600 people on an island near the site of an April 23 kidnapping, a newspaper report said on Friday.

The men, women and children from the Philippines and Indonesia, were driven out in a predawn swoop on Bum Bum Island, adjacent to Sipadan Island in northeastern Borneo, which is being disputed between Malaysia and Indonesia.

Those detained were taken to a community center in Semporna town in Sabah state, an hour away by boat.

Local police chief Sulaiman Junaid told the paper that 150 police personnel armed with assault rifles had conducted a door- to-door search for people living in makeshift houses along the island's coastline.