ZAMBOANGA CITY, 20 September 2007 — Malaysian authorities arrested dozens of Filipinos for illegally entering northern Sabah, Malaysia media said yesterday.

Police arrested 84 people, including 17 children, after they were intercepted in two boats during a special three-day operation at the mouth of Sungai Kanibungan River in Sabah’s northern Pitas district, Malaysia’s The Star Online reported.

Police also seized from one of the Filipino skippers of the boats 5,500 turtle eggs and 335 boxes of cigarettes believed smuggled from the Philippines, said the report. With the arrest, police said it uncovered a new landing point for illegal immigrants in northern Sabah.

“They have come into a very remote area to avoid detection,” said Deputy Superintendent Mohd Isa Yusoff, chief of the Kota Marudu police force.

Tens of thousands of Filipinos have been arrested in Sabah in the past years, many of whom had illegally crossed by boat from Tawi-Tawi province in search of work in construction sites despite a strict government campaign.

Others were duped by illegal recruiters who promised them work in hotels and resorts in Malaysia, but ended up without jobs and money and had been forced to work in palm oil plantations under constant fear of being arrested.

Malaysia began a crackdown on some 500,000 illegal foreign workers since 2005, conducting searches that extended from construction sites in Kuala Lumpur to oil palm plantations in Sabah.

Kuala Lumpur had previously granted amnesty that allowed illegal immigrants to leave the country with a promise that they could return as legal workers once they received proper documents.

The government’s tough action has enjoyed popular support in Malaysia, where illegal workers, who had numbered more than a million in a country of 24 million people, have been blamed for crime and other social ills.

Malaysia said the illegal workers do not pay tax and put a heavy burden on state services, such as education and health care, increasing pressure on an already high budget deficit. Some Filipino deportees said they were herded into overcrowded detention camps before being expelled.