Thousands deported in crackdown

Thousands deported in crackdown

MALAYSIA: More than 15,000 illegal immigrants were deported from Malaysia's Sabah state on Borneo island in three months this year, a police spokesman said on Thursday.

A total of 15,852 people, mostly from Indonesia and the Philippines, were sent home between February and May, Sanali Amit told AFP from police headquarters in the state capital Kota Kinabalu.

He said 14,236 illegal squatter homes were torn down during the same period.

Sanali warned that more arrests would be made in the coming months, as police were intensifying efforts to flush out illegal workers.

Up to half a million Filipinos live in Sabah, many of them having entered illegally to work in the resource-rich territory. Malaysia is home to about one million illegal immigrants and some 750,000 legal foreign workers, mainly from Indonesia. --AFP