Manila probes claims M'sia ill-treated Filipino illegals

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MANILA - Philippine Foreign Secretary Blas Ople on Wednesday ordered the country's mission in Kuala Lumpur to investigate allegations that Malaysian authorities had ill-treated Filipino illegal immigrants.

Ople cautioned against calls by senators to file a diplomatic protest with the Malaysian government over the issue, saying Manila needed to investigate first.

Some 120 Filipino illegals, 60 of them children, in Sabah were allegedly sent back to the Philippines on a fishing vessel designed only to carry a quarter of the load.

They arrived in the southern Philippine port of Zamboanga late Monday after being rescued by a Philippine coastguard vessel.

It was not clear when the Filipinos were shipped out of Sabah, but the coastguard said its vessel picked them up off the Tawi-Tawi island group near the sea border with Malaysia.

Filipino Senate president Franklin Drilon on Tuesday demanded Ople file a diplomatic protest.

Rented boat

Philippine ambassador to Kuala Lumpur Jose Brillantes has reported that a consular team was already looking into the incident, Ople said.

"We are a responsible state dealing with a friendly country. We have to rely on our own official report first," Ople said.

Preliminary findings showed that the undocumented Filipinos "decided to leave on their own by renting a boat" to escape tough sanctions under new Malaysian immigration laws, Ople said.

"They took the initiative to leave," Ople said, but stressed he had directed Brillantes "to send a spot report from the consular team that went to Sabah."

Tens of thousands of Filipinos are believed to be among 600,000 illegals employed in Malaysia, particulary in the resources-rich state of Sabah. — AFP



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