Kuala Lumpur, 03 September 2022 - The Philippine Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia conducted another Special Consular Mission to palm oil plantations in Sabah on 21 to 30 August 2022 at the IOI Clubhouse, Sandakan, Sabah.

The said special mission is in line with the Embassy’s goal of providing birth and identification documents to undocumented Filipinos in Sabah to regularize their employment status in palm oil plantations.

In a joint operation between the Philippine Embassy and the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), more than 1,500 Filipino plantation workers and their dependents successfully registered their births. The team also processed more than 1,800 applications for Philippine passports.

Aside from birth registration and passport processing, the team also registered more than 1,000 plantation workers for the Philippine ID System, a pilot test for the roll-out of the Philippine ID System in Foreign Service Posts.

The Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) and the Office of the Social Welfare Attaché joined the Special Consular Mission to Sandakan. POLO conducted exploratory talks with the management and workers of palm oil plantations for the verification of employment contracts and promoted POLO-OWWA program to Filipino workers. POLO also conducted worksite visit at IOI Plantation.

The Office of the Social Welfare Attaché conducted a seminar on children’s rights, protection and welfare, responsible parenthood, and reproductive health. The Social Welfare Attaché also visited the Humana School for children of palm oil plantation workers in IOI Plantations Sdn Bhd.

The Embassy is making arrangements to conduct another special consular mission to Lahad Datu to provide similar services to Filipino plantation workers and their dependents in the area. 

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