The children of some undocumented Filipinos in Malaysia have been detained as part of the government’s crackdown on illegal immigrants.
A Filipino man was visiting some compatriots who were detained for staying in Malaysia illegally. However, he saw that children were also being detained and that his friend’s wife and child were among them, GMA News reported.
The man said the mother and child were detained for six months before they were deported to the Philippines. The father is still in Sabah in hiding.
The man took a video at the detention facility in Kimanis, Sabah. The video was then sent to the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), which said it was gathering information on children being kept in detention.
In August, the Philippine government warned an estimated 400,000 undocumented Filipinos that there would be a nationwide crackdown on illegal migrants in Malaysia as the country’s amnesty program came to an end.
The DFA said most illegal migrants in Malaysia stayed in Sabah, which is near the Philippine island provinces of Sulu and Tawi-Tawi. As of June 2017, about half of the 470,000 Filipinos in Malaysia were illegal migrants.
Read: 400,000 unregistered Filipinos face crackdown in Malaysia
