Datuk Rodzi Md Saad, Secretary of the Sabah State National Security Council, said these people were previously kept at Sandakan temporary detention centre while awaiting the completion of deportation procedures. 

They were scheduled to be deported in October, but their journey home was postponed due to the sinking of a ferry designated to deport them. 

Rodzi said the deportation also aims to ease cramped conditions at the state’s immigration detention facilities. 

Last week, during a visit to Malaysia by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, the two countries agreed on a step-by-step repatriation of undocumented Filipinos in Sabah.