A crackdown on illegal immigrants in Malaysia has stranded thousands of refugees between miserable shanty towns on isolated islands and their war-torn homelands in the southern Philippines, where an escalation of violence by Muslim rebels is feared once Ramadan concludes.
If the Malaysian government has its way, up to 150,000 people could be forcibly repatriated off the coast of north Borneo by the end of the year despite a surge in violence following an end to 10 years of talks between Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic National Front (MILF), and Manila. Nowhere is this more keenly feared than in Pondok on Gaya Island, in Malaysia's Sabah state.
Pondok is a labyrinth of stilt houses built on a shallow seabed from scrap timber, rusted corrugated iron, rope and old nails.
There is no plumbing or electricity, drinking water is sold out of large plastic drums from a boat and paid for with wages from unskilled jobs in town.
It is also notorious for drugs and violence, but life here is preferable to conditions in the southern Philippines, where scores were killed last month as Christian villages were razed, forcing 160,000 people to flee their homes after the MILF went on the offensive.
'I don't like it, I don't want to go back,' said Leonard bin Daria, 43, who will be deported if the Malaysian authorities catch him. 'It's like being stuck in the middle of a road, surrounded by heavy traffic on all sides and not knowing which way to turn.'