Home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said they needed to be taken to Manila for documentation purposes before they could be repatriated to their home countries.

“Four other Malaysians are still being detained in the southern Philippines to facilitate investigations to ascertain the owners of the boats,” he told reporters after attending the 2024 Convention on Combating Human Trafficking and Forced Labour here.

Last Sunday, Philippine authorities detained 15 people, including seven Malaysians and eight Chinese nationals, on suspicion of illegally entering the country’s waters.

Philippine Immigration Bureau commissioner Norman Tansingco said they were detained in the waters off Sitangkai, near Tawi-Tawi in the southern region of the country, after entering Philippine territory on two speedboats without valid travel documents.