The messy deportation of Filipinos in Sabah could be due to lack of communication from Manila as it does not have a consular office in the state to relay to its nationals information on legislation changes, said a spokesperson from the Chief Minister's Department today.

"The repatriation of Indonesian migrant workers had been orderly because Indonesian consular officials started working early to warn their nationals of the new laws. The consular officials organised trips to oil palm estates and issued press statements to inform their nationals," said the spokesperson who declined to be named.

"This gives time for Indonesian workers to apply for work permits. The Indonesian consular officials also regularly briefs the chief minister [Chong Kah Kiat] on their progress."

In contrast, said the spokesperson, there were no similar activities to inform Filipino nationals of the implication of new provisions to the law allowing for caning and jailing of illegals.

Claims over Sabah

"There is no Philippines consulate in Sabah. Since February, only one official was sent from the embassy in Kuala Lumpur to deal with the repatriation exercise," said the spokesperson when contacted.

Successive Philippine governments had refused to establish a general consulate in the state due to sovereignty claims by Manila over Sabah, historically a part of the Sultanate of Sulu. Malaysia has rejected these claims, saying that Sabahans had voted in a pre-independence referendum to join Malaysia.

The Chief Minister's Department spokesperson also said many Filipinos had remained in Sabah even after new provisions of the Immigration Act came into effect because they had to raise funds to pay for travel documents to return home in addition to transportation fares.

"The Philippine authorities are said to charge RM50 for travel documents for their nationals. Other allegations have also surfaced that immigrants are being skimmed off their money by [middlemen] charging in excess of the fee," the spokesperson said.

Joint statement

On the visit by Philippine government officials to Sabah detention centres, the spokesperson said the state government is glad that the delegation wants to see for themselves the true situation in the camps.

"The Sabah government has denied all the allegations (of ill-treatment). The delegation was flown this afternoon by an army aircraft to Sandakan for a camp visit. They were given an on-site briefing by the chief minister and security chiefs, including the Sabah immigration director."

The team of inspectors appointed by President Gloria Arroyo arrived in Sabah yesterday to start a five-day investigation into the controversy over the deportation of illegal Filipino immigrants from Sabah.

The team, led by Arroyo's Muslim affairs advisor Nur Jaafar, met with Chong this morning before visiting immigration detention centres in Menggatal, Tawau and Sandakan.

"The chief minister and the head of the Philippine delegation will be issuing a joint press statement after their visit to the Sandakan camp," said the spokesperson.

Passport fee waiver

Meanwhile, the Consul General of the Philippines in Kuala Lumpur, Luis Cruz, said the delegation is expected to submit a report to Arroyo on their findings after the completion of their trip on Thursday.

Cruz said although no permanent office had been set up in Sabah, consular officials from Kuala Lumpur and Manila had been posted to Sabah over the past few months to issue travel documents to the migrant workers.

"Several days ago, we have also decided to waive the fees charged for issuance of travel documents," said Cruz when contacted today.

The consul general told malaysiakini that to date, some 15,000 travel documents had been issued to Filipinos in Sabah.

"We do not have the exact numbers but based on our calculation that there are four persons travelling on one document, we estimate that 60,000 people have left Sabah," he added.

Prior to the action against illegal immigrants, the Filipino population in Sabah was said be at least 500,000-strong, mainly originating from the southern Philippines islands.