AlJazeera News
By Marga Ortigas in
April 28th, 2011
There’s no soft, spectacular sunset over Sabah this afternoon. No wisps of crimson, or feathery touches of pink.
Dusk is settling like a heavy orange yolk suffocating what’s already been an oppressive day.
The mackerel-coloured sea is choppy, leading the small boats moored around the harbour in a syncopated dance. Their lights begin to come on…looking like fallen stars twinkling on the bobbing cobalt ocean.
The boardwalk is now dipped in colourful neon, and the stalls in the waterfront market begin to raise their rainbow tents. They look like the large colourful sails of the traditional vintas from Zamboanga in the southern Philippines. It’s where many of the vendors originate from. No surprise then that’s it now known as the "Filipino market".
For many Filipinos – like the market vendors – looking to escape poverty and civil strife in the restive southern Philippines, Sabah is the promised land, despite being Malaysia's poorest province. Even the weather here is slightly better. The annual typhoon season that cuts through the Philippines doesn't hit Sabah that lies directly beneath it, giving it the monicker -- 'The Land Below the Wind'. The ideal place to seek shelter.
Hundreds of thousands of Filipinos first came as refugees fleeing a separatist war. A large number have now gained legal status. But the flow of people from the southern Philippines has only grown over the last 30 years.
The Malaysian Human Rights office estimates there are now close to two million illegal immigrants in Sabah -- more than the number of Malaysians themselves. And three-quarters of those migrants are reportedly from the Philippines, the majority of them "hiding" in plain sight.
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