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Hundreds of Filipino residents have fled northern Borneo amid fears of being caught in hostilities between Malaysian troops and followers of a Philippine sultan asserting ancestral rights over the territory, officials in Manila said today.

About 280 Filipinos arrived in batches overnight in the southern Philippine province of Tawi-Tawi from Sabah, where Malaysian forces were hunting armed fighters of sultan Jamalul Kiram III that set up camp in Lahad Datu district on Feb 12.

“They feel so afraid that they would be caught in the fighting, so they fled and brought their families with them,” said Ramon Santos, a regional civil defence director.

The Office of Civil Defence has coordinated with local governments in the southern region of Mindanao to ensure support services for the returning Filipinos, he said.

NONE “The priority is to ensure their safety, provide psycho-social debriefing, and help them find livelihoods so they can start a new life here,” he said.

Some 800,000 Filipinos live and work in Sabah, many of whom fled Mindanao at the height of Muslim insurgency in the 1970s. Despite negotiations to end the rebellion, many Filipinos still travel to Sabah to find work.

Philippine authorities feared the number of evacuees would increase if the crisis in Lahad Datu is not resolved immediately.

“We’re seeing just the first wave of evacuees and returning Filipinos,” said Dr Sangkula Laja, head of a health department team in Tawi-Tawi.

Eight Malaysian police commandos and 19 Philippine gunmen have been killed since fighting first broke out on Friday in Lahad Datu and spread to nearby Semporna.

The sultanate leased the land in 1878 to the British North Borneo Co, which passed it to Malaysia after it gained independence. Kuala Lumpur currently pays the sultan RM5,300 (US$1,680) per year in token rent.

- dpa