"The IOM pledged to facilitate the deportation of the 42 Cambodians to their home country when its representative visited the Immigration Detention Center in Passo village in the subdistrict of Baguala," he said.
He said the IOM representative visited the center along with Cambodian embassy staff members from Jakarta led by Third Secretary Mao Naream and they had also talked with the detainees.
"According to the results of their talks, the 42 Cambodians refused to be deported as detainees for illegal fishing because they had not worked on fishing boats for a long time," he said.
Enang said the most important thing was their deportation because they had problems with fishery companies in Southeast Maluku district and that was why they had come to Ambon.
Initially there were only 39 Cambodians but on Wednesday (Oct 5) three more voluntarily came to report themselves to the office but they gave no clear reasons for their presence.
"When questioned more intensively, they proved to have no immigration or identification documents so that they were detained and put in the center for deportation along with the other Cambodians," he said.
Enang said the three Cambodians came to report themselves probably after learning about the arrival of IOM and Cambodian embassy staff.
(Uu.H-YH/HAJM/O001)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
