More than 200 deportees back home from Malaysia under amnesty program



Published September 8, 2018 12:20am 

At least 203 undocumented Filipinos workers from Malaysia arrived at the port in Zamboanga City on Thursday, Oscar Oida reported on State of the Nation with Jessica Soho.
The group is the third batch of workers who availed of the amnesty program offered by the Malaysian government crackdown on illegal migrants.
One of the workers was "Janice," who stayed in Malaysia for 25 years and had a job in Kota Kinabalu before she was deported.
Janice and several others were held at a detention center in Malaysia before she was allowed to return to the Philippines.
She has no plans of returning to Malaysia.
"Stay put na lang po siguro, dito na lang ako sa Pilipinas. 'Di na lang ako babalik du'n," she said.
They underwent profiling and medical checkups at the Department of Social Welfare and Development Field Office Region 9.
According to health officer Dr. Shara Jane Dawami, some suffered from upper respiratory infections and skin conditions such as scabies.
Immigration crackdown
The Department of Foreign Affairs said that since the start of Malaysia's voluntary deportation program in January 2016, only 5,844 Filipinos availed of amnesty – a figure representing less than 1 percent of the estimated 400,000 undocumented Filipinos in Malaysia.
"We cannot discount the possibility na 'yung mga na-deport dati, bumabalik din dahil many of them already have families in Sabah," Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary Elmer Cato explained.
The Malaysian government has warned there would be no extension to its Voluntary Deportation Program that was launched in 2016.
Over a thousand have arrived earlier in August.
Under the amnesty program, the government is mandated to shoulder the travel expenses of the home-bound deportees. — Margaret Claire Layug/BAP/KG, GMA News

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