A two-year-old Filipino girl died while 15 others were warded at the Zamboanga City Medical Center in Mindanao after arriving from Sandakan, Sabah, last Saturday.

The toddler, Rene Nasir, was among six who were suffering from severe dehydration. They had been vomitting after suffering from a severe bout of diarrhea.

The Philippine consul in Kuala Lumpur, Antonio Morales, said Rene had fallen sick and was in critical condition even before boarding the ship last Friday.

"She was sick upon boarding the ship, so much so that the physician on board was trying to revive her. She was very, very sick, and it looked like she would not recover," he told malaysiakini when contacted.

"However, she did not die on the journey. She died in Zamboanga City," he added.

Morales also said that the authorities in Zamboanga were of the opinion that the sickness of the deportees and the death of Rene was due to problems in detention while in Sabah.

"We cannot visit the detention centre as the regulations allow us only to see the detainees from outside.

"But there was probably overcrowding and insufficient water. Detainees also experienced difficulty in breathing and this posed problems for the children," he said.

Concerns recorded

Morales said that he had written to the immigration authorities in Sabah and related his concerns over the lack of proper treatment to detainees.

"On our part, we are particularly concern with the (detention conditions of) children, women and the elderly.

"We have written to the authorities on these matters. We hope that this will not happen again," he added.

The ship that left Sandakan had 159 deportees who had been detained at an immigration detention centre in Tawau, Sabah.

When contacted, the respective heads of the Sandakan immigration department and the Malaysian consulate in Davao, Mindanao, said they had not been informed of any death.

"It could merely be hearsay," said one official.

They refused to comment further until notified through official channels.

Why the sick deported?

However, Immigration official Musa Sulaiman confirmed that a shipload of about 150 Filipinos had departed from Sandakan on Friday.

In a report by online news agency mindanews , Zamboanga city health official Rodel Agbulos said he would enquire with Malaysian officials why sick persons were deported, as there had been a prior agreement not to do so.

In a mass expulsion of about 10,000 Filipino illegal immigrants from Sabah in 2002, four children died from dehydration and other hardships, while there were also reports of alleged sexual abuse.

Numerous groups have warned that the tragedy would repeat following Malaysia's crackdown on an estimated 1.2 million undocumented migrants beginning in March this year.