Malaysia Detains 84 Filipinos In Sabah

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / 19 Sept) – Malaysian authorities arrested dozens of Filipinos for illegally entering northern Sabah, reports said on Wednesday.

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

It said 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.
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 illegal Filipinos have been arrested in Sabah the past years and many of them had illegally crossed the oil-rich Malaysian state by boat from Tawi-Tawi island to 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 up to 500,000 illegal foreign workers since 2005 and conducting searches that extended from construction sites in Kuala Lumpur to oil palm plantations in Sabah. The round-up usually involved police, immigration and volunteer squads.

Kuala Lumpur had previously given amnesty that allowed illegal immigrants to leave the country with a promise 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 and others reported tales of abuses inside Malaysian jails. (Mindanao Examiner)

Roadside Washers Threatened With Jail: Reuters

ROME - Illegal immigrants in Italy earning a few coins by washing windscreens at traffic lights could face up to three months in jail after Florence launched a crackdown and other cities said they might follow suit.

Many cities are already taking action against what is seen as "imported" behaviour such as tourists taking off their shirts or eating hamburgers in the piazza in Venice, or getting drunk in public in Rome -- something image-conscious Italians avoid.

Foreigners are also blamed for much of the street crime in a relatively safe country. Most people wielding sponges on street corners are Romanian gypsies, often young women and children.

But word got round quickly in historic Florence that city hall had introduced new rules enabling police to bring charges against window-washers, confiscate their equipment and start prosecutions that could end in fines and a prison sentence.

Florence police chief Alessandro Bartolini personally led the first patrol which resulted in 15 people being charged.

"There are no more on the streets. Word has got around, apparently," Bartolini said.

Rome's Mayor Walter Veltroni, who has taken action against illegal gypsy camps and now vows to clean up rowdy nightlife and public drug-taking and drinking in popular neighbourhoods like Trastevere, said window-washers are so pushy "that people are virtually ravaged at every traffic light and street corner".

"People must realise that behind the window-washers there is exploitation of minors, which is a crime. Like prostitution this is a racket that must be smashed," Veltroni told reporters.

In Verona, Mayor Flavio Tosi, who has previously taken action against people eating sandwiches in public, said he would monitor the experiment in Florence: "If the new regulation manages to deter the window-washers, we will adopt it too".

Some civic groups in Florence applauded the rules which city officials said acted on complaints of window-washers "becoming more aggressive, especially to women alone in their cars".

The city's public safety officer Graziano Cioni stressed that the aim was "not to punish beggars or poor people" but to combat "arrogant and violent" behaviour against motorists.

However, leftist groups in the city called the new measure excessive and regional Communist party chief Niccolo Pecorini termed it "unworthy of Florence's hospitable traditions". (Reuters)