The illegal immigrants being brought to the MMEA jetty.
TAWAU: The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) detained fourteen Indonesians trying to sneak into Tawau yesterday from Sungai Melayu.
District enforcement chief Anor Hj Jaafar said an MMEA boat was patrolling Tawau waters at about 10:30am when it came across a speedboat from Sungai Melayu, Sebatik Island, that was heading for Tawau town.
He said all fourteen passengers comprising seven men and four women aged between 20 to 40-years-old, two boys aged 4 and 3-years-old and a 2-year-old girl were Indonesians, including the skipper who was also detained.
He said all the detainees will be investigated under the Immigration Act 1959/63 for failure to produce valid identification documents.
He said public awareness on the offense of bringing illegal immigrants in is still lacking, causing such cases to occur in Sabah waters especially Tawau.
Anor said Tawau’s geographic location which is near to Indonesia also caused the incident to be rampant following many routes for them to enter the country’s border.
He urged the public to help curb the activity by channeling information to the MMEA hotline at 089-752 115/089-750 116.