ZAMBOANGA, Philippines - Some 1,525 Filipinos arrived in the southern Philippines Monday after being deported from Malaysia, which has been cracking down on illegal migrants, the navy said.

The Filipinos, many of them sickly women and children, were ferried aboard a Philippine navy ship to the island of Tawi-Tawi near the common sea border with Malaysia, said Commodore Ernesto de Leon, naval forces chief in the south.

"Some of them are sick and most of the children and women are suffering from respiratory tract infection," de Leon said.

"We have brought doctors to treat them. We pity them and if others could only see their plight, you would feel your chest tightening realizing what they have been through."

Social workers and doctors gave the Filipinos first aid while local officials were checking on their documents before they are finally allowed to journey to nearby Zamboanga city on the main island of Mindanao.

Another batch of about the same number are expected to arrive in Tawi-Tawi on Wednesday, de Leon said.

Since February about 64,000 Filipinos have left Malaysia's Sabah state and an estimated 4,000 Filipinos are still waiting to be deported.

A total of more than 300,000 illegal workers, mainly from Indonesia, went home under a fourth-month amnesty ahead of the introduction of new laws on Aug 1, under which they faced a mandatory six months in jail and up to six strokes of the cane. — AFP