Malaysia evicts 500 Bajau Laut from offshore Borneo homes in migrant crackdown, activists say

More than 500 people from seafaring communities around the coast of Malaysia’s Sabah state have been evicted from their homes this week as part of a crackdown against undocumented migrants, local activists said.

The Bajau Laut are a community of mostly stateless sea nomads, living offshore in wooden houseboats or huts built on stilts in the Semporna district of Sabah on Borneo island.

Born without identification documents, most do not have access to basic facilities such as education, financial or health services. They often live in fear of being deported or detained by immigration authorities, who do not make a distinction between stateless residents and undocumented migrants.

An estimated 1 million undocumented migrants and stateless residents are believed to be living in Sabah, accounting for a third of the state’s population.

Malaysia in recent years has stepped up enforcement against illegal migration, detaining around 45,000 undocumented people since May 2020, Human Rights Watch said in March this year.

Since Tuesday, enforcement officials have been burning and demolishing houses belonging to the Bajau Laut on seven islands in Semporna, said Mukmin Nantang, the founder of Sabah-based social advocacy group Borneo Komrad.

The officials were unidentified but were believed to be part of an enforcement task force, Mukmin said, adding that some communities had received prior notice of the operation from Sabah Parks, a conservation body managed by the state government.