Malaysia arrests 8 Filipinos who illegally enter Sabah

From the Mindanao Examiner (Aug 28): Malaysia arrests 8 Filipinos who illegally enter Sabah

Malaysia arrested 8 Filipinos who illegally entered Sabah on Monday despite strict security patrol in southern Philippines near the border, reports said.

It said the skipper of the speedboat who brought the Filipinos managed to escape shortly after policemen intercepted the passengers in Kampung Padas. This was also confirmed by Sabah Region 4 marine police commander Assistant Commissioner Mohd Yazib Abd Aziz in a report by the New Straits Times.

Yazib said those who have been arrested, whose ages are between 13-53, are mostly from Basilan, a province in the Muslim autonomous region in southern Philippines. They all have no travel documents and were carrying various identification cards when policemen searched them.

The identities of the Filipinos were not immediately known, but all of them were being interrogated in a detention cell. It was unknown how they managed to pass through strict security patrol in southern Philippines, but there had been numerous reports that many Filipinos still crossed the border illegally to find for jobs, mostly in palm plantations and construction sites.

Many of them crossed Sabah from Sitangkai Island and Bongao in Tawi-Tawi, also in the autonomous region.

http://mindanaoexaminer.com/malaysia-arrests-8-filipinos-who-illegally-enter-sabah/