Deportees In Malaysia

The Department of Social Welfare and Development Office in Zamboanga City had registered over 45,000 Filipino deportees since 1995. Points of origin of these deportees are the provinces of Zamboanga Peninsula, its neighboring provinces in the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao such as Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, and as far as Palawan and other parts of the country.According to February 2, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer (A3), there are still an “estimated 170,000 undocumented Filipinos in Sabah”. The lifting of amnesty by the Malaysian government in January this year will dramatically increase the influx of more illegal or undocumented Filipinos to the country. Simultaneous with the lifting of the amnesty is the activation of 560,000 People’s Volunteers Corps by the Malaysian government in hunting down the illegals.This issue has been causing social problem among the receiving local government units and unrest among the affected families due to lack of employment opportunities in their respective places of destinations. Abject poverty and the desire of a quality life are the two basic reasons why these people continue to leave their homes to find their luck in Malaysia despite absence of legal documents. Since the start of deportation process in the 90s, enormous amount of resources had been spent by both the national and local governments in addressing the deportees’ immediate needs like medication, transportation, food and accommodation, as well as legalizing the documents of deportees who are qualified to work in Malaysia.

The present situation is expected to prevail until all the illegal Filipinos in Malaysia have been deported. It would seem that many will still take the “backdoor” due to proximity of the some island provinces to Sabah.