Malaysia begins deporting illegal RI immigrants

Malaysia begins deporting illegal RI immigrants

Agencies, Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia has begun deporting Indonesians seized in the roundup of
thousands of people under a crackdown targeting illegal
immigrants and any armed militants hiding among them, a senior
government official said on Friday.

Dozens of Indonesians detained in the massive sweep across the
eastern state of Sabah, on Borneo island, have been sent home
since Tuesday, while hundreds more will soon follow, said
Abdullah Sani Sulaiman, the state's chief immigration officer.

Malaysia detained nearly 8,000 suspected illegal immigrants in
a sweep that began earlier this week in its eastern Sabah state,
police said on Friday.

The detainees were mostly Indonesian and Filipino nationals
who had sneaked into the state on Borneo, a giant forested island
which lies just south of the Philippines and is shared by
Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.

A police statement said that by mid-afternoon on Friday, a
total of 7,676 immigrants had been detained for screening and
1,865 marked for deportation. Hundreds of their homes have been
bulldozed.

Hundreds of Filipinos seized during the same operation are
expected to be sent home within two weeks, Abdullah said.

Malaysia increasingly sees illegal immigrants as a security
threat, and the crackdown coincides with the detention of Islamic
militants -- some of them from Indonesia -- accused of taking
part in an alleged plot to blow up U.S. targets in neighboring
Singapore.

Sabah lies near the predominantly Muslim southern Philippines,
and separatists fighting the Philippine government have sought
refuge in Sabah in the past. The Abu Sayyaf gang, which has links
to the al-Qaeda terror network, kidnapped tourists and resort
workers from Sabah in 2000.

Malaysia has beefed up security in its territorial waters with
the Philippines recently. Philippine forces put down a bloody
revolt by one group of Moro separatists in November and are being
assisted by U.S. troops to destroy Abu Sayyaf.

None of the detainees has so far been identified as a
militant.

Abdullah said that the deported Indonesians were being put on
boats plying daily between Sabah and the Indonesian island of
Nunukan. Filipinos will be shipped to Zamboanga in the southern
Philippines.

"Deporting Philippine citizens takes more time, because the
Philippine Embassy has to issue them individual travel
documents," Abdullah told The Associated Press by telephone from
Kota Kinabalu, Sabah's capital.