State National Security Council (NSC) secretary Rodzi Md Saad said of the figure, 12,636 were from the Philippines, 3,331 from Indonesia, and 241, from other countries.
“Only the passport, and the IMM 13 for refugees are considered valid, but the illegal immigrants have all sorts of purported documents issued by certain parties for them to avoid arrest,” he told a media conference here Monday.
He said the government had to spend up to RM13 million every year for the detention and deportation of illegal immigrants.
According to him, 500,147 undocumented foreigners were arrested, 400,563 were deported and 74,210 returned to their country voluntarily, between 1990 and October this year.
Of the total, 85 per cent or 300,468 were Filipinos, 192,392 were Indonesians and 7,269 were from other countries.
Meanwhile, he said the Menggatal temporary detention centre which is being reconstructed at a cost of RM14 million would be able to accommodate about 2,500 people at one time.
Three other temporary detention centres are in Tawau, Sandakan and Papar. Rodzi also said that the curfew imposed in the Eastern Sabah Security Zone (ESSZone) had been effective in curbing the flow of illegal immigrants into Sabah.
— BERNAMA
