An exciting opportunity in Sabah

I heard from a Philippine Embassy official about an exciting opportunity in Sabah. He told me that there are about 500,000 undocumented aliens in Sabah. An undocumented alien is simply a person without official papers (eg. birth certificate, identity card, passport). Most of these people were originally from Philippines, and the rest from Indonesia.

Most of the men had come to Sabah to look for employment – mostly as unskilled labor in construction sites and palm oil plantations.

They earned an average of 8 Malaysian Ringgit ($3 Sing) per day.

Many came from southern Philippines to escape from the fighting between the government troops and Muslim separatists (eg. Abu Sayaf).

They came illegally, without passports, on little boats that landed on the beaches at night – and they then just melted away into the kampongs, where they often had undocumented alien friends or relatives.

As long as they avoided taking public transport and going to town, where there was a possibility of police checking, they were unlikely to be caught. After all, they look exactly like the locals and had similar customs and religions.

Once they got a job and saved enough money, they sent for their families to join them. Their wives and kids came the same way – without passports on little boats that landed on the remote beaches at night.

They usually stayed at little squatter villages by the beach or in the jungles outside the towns. They usually built their houses with discarded planks that they got from construction sites and cardboard. They improved and enlarged their houses whenever they saved some money to buy additional building materials.

If their house was not too far from houses of Malaysians, then the ladies would look for jobs as washer-women. If their houses were too far, then the ladies would collect fire-wood to supplement their family income.

In most kampongs, there were mostly women and children. The men were often working in faraway plantations or construction sites – and would only come home for a few days every few months.

For many, life was good in Sabah! For many, it was the first time that they had peace and jobs!

But there was something that was missing – their kids had no chance to go to school! They were undocumented aliens and their kids had no official papers to register in school.

A whole generation of children were going to grow up totally illiterate!

I had to go and see for myself.