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