The Philippines government has received permission for its navy ships to enter Sabah territorial waters so as to expedite the departure of undocumented Filipino migrant workers who could not secure ferry tickets to return home.

The Consul General of Philippines in Kuala Lumpur, Luis Cruz, said yesterday a request was submitted to the Malaysian government two days ago for navy ships to transport an estimated 18,000 Filipino migrant workers stranded in Sabah.

"The problem is that there is only one ferry service in operation between Sandakan and Zamboanga. This ferry operates only twice a week," he said during a telephone interview this afternoon.

Cruz said Sabah immigration authorities had agreed to allow a grace period for illegal immigrants to leave the country until Aug 24, in view of transportation limitations.

"This is only for a specific group of people. It is only applicable for those who have obtained travel documents before the amnesty period ended but could not get ferry tickets," he added.

Welfare services provided

The government announced an amnesty period between March 22 and July 31 for illegal immigrants to leave the country without being charged under new provisions of the Immigration Act which include heavy fines, a jail term and whipping for offenders.

However, immigration authorities later agreed to a grace period for those who had intended to leave but were unable to book departure tickets to leave earlier.

Cruz said the Philippines government had set up a Department of Social Services and Development (DSSD) at Zamboanga to process the status of some 70,000 returnees since the amnesty period was declared in March.

"The DSSD will issue these people with [identity] documents. If they are unable to afford a return ticket to their hometowns, the department will provide them with transportation," the consul general said.

Ferry problems

Meanwhile, Sabah Immigration Department Director Abdullah Sani Sulaiman confirmed receipt of a letter from Wisma Putra on the request by the Philippines government to send over their navy ships.

"Tentatively, they will be arriving either on Aug 23 or Aug 24. We are expecting one large navy ship and two smaller ships," he told malaysiakini yesterday.

Abdullah said the regular ferry service between Sandakan and Zamboanga had stalled for a week because of technical problems.

"Normally, the ferry can carry a maximum of 800 persons each journey. As there are two trips scheduled a week, at least 1,600 people had been unable to leave because of interruption to the ferry service," he explained.

Furthermore, Abdullah noted that some migrant workers have decided not to purchase tickets in advance after hearing rumours that navy ships could be arriving to ferry them back.

"A ferry trip costs RM120 one way. They would prefer to go with the navy because it would be free of charge," he said.

Discrepancy in figures

According to official figures compiled by the Sabah Immigration Department, 3,434 Filipino nationals and 32,073 Indonesian nationals had left the state since Aug 1.

The large discrepancy between the figures given by the Malaysian authorities (3,434) and Filipino authorities (70,000) could be because many undocumented immigrants had left voluntarily and did not register with Malaysian immigration authorities or applied for travel permits from their respective embassies.

Transportation limitations have been blamed as a reason that many illegal immigrants from neighbouring Indonesia and Philippines had decided to remain in Sabah after the expiry of the amnesty period last month.

Faced with similar predicament as the Filipino government, Indonesia had arranged for additional commercial ferry services to operate between Tawau in Sabah and Nunukan, an Indonesian border town.

Indonesian authorities had also planned to deploy three warships to transport thousands of stranded workers although this was later delayed for unknown reasons.