A total of 11,608 illegal immigrants in Sabah had been deported last year.

Assistant Minister in the Chief Minister's Department Nasrun Datu Mansur said that of the total, 8,510 were Philippine nationals and 2,810 were Indonesians, while the rest were from other countries.

"Between January and October this year, a total of 11,310 people had been repatriated to their countries of origin, of whom, 7,311 were Philippine nationals, 3,856 were Indonesians while 143 were from other countries," he said when replying to a question from Louis Rampas (BN-Kiulu) at the State Legislative Assembly sitting in Kota Kinabalu today.

He also said that the state government was committed to addressing the problems of incursions by illegal immigrants into Sabah and would take several follow-up measures.

These included intensifying checks at the entry points, especially along the east coast of Sabah, amending the law by imposing heavier penalties, intensifying operations to detain immigrants and increasing the number of temporary detention centres.

- Bernama