Hundreds of deportees continue to arrive from Malaysia

ZAMBOANGA CITY – More than a hundred Filipino deportees who were among the thousands of illegal aliens rounded up in Malaysia arrived here this week.

The arrival of the deportees may have been a regular scene at the local port here but most of them are adults, the Department of Social Work and Development (DSWD) regional office said.

This is because the Philippines has reminded the Malaysian government of an agreement that sick children should not be deported. Last month, at least three sick children deportees died after they were repatriated along with their mothers.

The incident drew international uproar and various groups had called for a stop to the repatriation of sick deportees.

Agapita Bendoy, DSWD crisis intervention unit head, said 136 Filipino deportees arrived Wednesday aboard the passenger ferry M/V Danica Joy from Kuta Kinabalu.

This brought to about 8,000 the Filipino deportees sent back to the Philippines from January to October this year.

The Malaysian government earlier disclosed that about 300,000 Filipinos who have illegally entered their country will be rounded up and sent back to the Philippines.

"They were all working ages and none of them were sick when they were deported from Malaysia," Bendoy said.

The fresh batch of deportees are residents of Basilan and this city. According to Bendoy, the crisis intervention unit immediately attended to the deportees.

She said the deportees will also determine if they are still qualified to get pertinent documents to travel and work in Malaysia in coordination with their employers in that country.

However, insiders from the social work office disclosed that many of those who were deported before managed to slip back to Malaysia illegally, passing through the southern backdoor.

The source said some have been deported more than once by the Malaysian government after they were caught using other identities. — Roel Pareño