Almost 10,000 Indonesian workers, this time equipped with proper documents and work orders, have returned to Sabah this month, an official said Saturday.

The figure was based on returning workers who left the small town of Nunukan in Indonesia's East Kalimantan province from September 1 to 12, said district labor and transmigration chief Hasan Basri.

"Their employers asked them to return and this time they are properly documented with work contracts and passports. Almost all of them are palm oil plantation workers," Basri told AFP from Nunukan, on the border of Sabah state on Borneo island