| Sebatik Island | |
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Sebatik Island
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| Coordinates: | |
| Country | Malaysia Indonesia |
| State | Sabah |
| Province of Indonesia | East Kalimantan |
| Population | |
| • Total | 25,000 Malaysian 80,000 Indonesian |
Sebatik Island (Pulau Sebatik) is an island off the eastern coast of Borneo, partly within Indonesia and partly within Malaysia. It has an area of approximately 452.2 square kilometres.[1][2] The minimum distance between Sebatik Island and the mainland of Borneo is about one kilometer.[3]
Sebatik Island lies between Tawau Bay (Teluk Tawau) to the north and Sebuku Bay (Teluk Sebuku) to the south. The city of Tawau lies in Sabah just to the north. The island is bisected at roughly 4° 10' North by the Indonesia-Malaysia border - the northern part belongs to Sabah, Malaysia (Sebatik Malaysia) while the southern part belongs to East Kalimantan, Indonesia (Sebatik Indonesia).
Sebatik Malaysia has a population estimated to be approximately 25,000, as opposed to approximately 80,000 people in Sebatik Indonesia.[4]
The demarcated international border between Malaysia and Indonesia stops at the eastern edge of Sebatik Island, so that the ownership of Unarang Rock and the maritime area located to the east of Sebatik is unclear.[5] This is one of the reasons why the Ambalat region waters and crude oil deposits east of Sebatik Island have been the center of an active maritime dispute between Indonesia and Malaysia since March 2005. The ambiguity of the border at the eastern edge is sometimes attributed as a reason causing the "loss" to Indonesia of two islands: Sipadan and Ligitan.[5]
While there are border guards on the island, there is currently no immigration office, no customs house, no barbed wire fence and no walls demarcating the border. Instead, the only evidence of a border are the concrete piles buried every kilometer from east to west.[6]
Sebatik Island was one of the places in which heavy fighting took place between Indonesian troops and Malaysian troops during the 1963 Indonesia Malaysia Confrontation.
The North Borneo Timbers company operated a logging concession on the island until the 1980s and its mostly expatriate employees lived in a self-contained community in Wallace Bay. Sebatik Malaysia is within the administrative district of Tawau. For electoral purposes, Sebatik falls within the parliamentary constituency of Kalabakan and the state assembly district of Sebatik.
Sitangkai Indonesia (at its closest points) is approximately 175 km to Sitangkai, Tawi-Tawi, Philippines, the second closest point between the two countries after the Miangas island in North Sulawesi.[7]
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