Kota Kinabalu: The Sabah Immigration Department deported some 239 undocumented Indonesians to their country of origin from Tawau on Thursday.
The exercise involved detainees held at the Kota Kinabalu, Papar, Sandakan and Tawau immigration depots.
State Immigration Director Datuk Sharifah Sitti Saleha Habib Yusoff said they were aged between two and 72, comprising 186 men, 41 women and 12 children.
“They were sent home using a ferry from Tawau to the Tunon Taka Terminal in Nunukan, Indonesia,” she said, in a statement, Friday.
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Those deported had completed their sentences for various immigration offences under the Immigration Act 1959/63 and Immigration Regulations 1963, said Sitti Saleha.
She said the sentences meted out to the detainees as well as the deportation were in accordance with the country’s laws.
She said the frequency of the repatriation of undocumented Indonesian citizens to their country of origin depended on the strategic cooperation between the consulate in Tawau in expediting the documentation process of the detainees.
“The deportation programme is part of an ongoing operation by the State Immigration Department to send home foreign inmates held at depots statewide.
“The department is committed towards the enforcement effort as well as repatriation exercise,” she said.
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