KOTA KINABALU, Sept 24 — Sabah Immigration Department deported 208 Filipinos by sea for the second time this month.

State immigration director Sitti Saleha Habib Yusoff said that the foreigners were detained for not having valid travel documents, and were deported via the MV Antonia 1 ferry.

"The breakdown of people includes 97 men, 60 women, and 51 children, including five infants under the age of two years.

"The children were sent back along with their parents or guardians,” she said in a statement here today.

This is the second such exercise this month, after the last one on September 6. However, this batch of deportees only involved Filipinos from the Sandakan depot, as opposed to the previous round which saw detainees from all four depots in the state.

"All the detainees committed offences under the Immigration Act 1959/63 and action was carried out accordingly,” said Sitti Saleha, reminding foreigners in the country to obtain proper travel documents and work permits.

She said the department would continue to conduct operations to weed out and deport all foreigners without documents in the state.