ALL 20 Immigration depots nationwide are currently operating at under-capacity, says the Home Minister.
Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said the depots can take up to 20,650 immigrants at a time but as of March 7, there were only 13,635 in detention.
As such, he said the report of congestion by Human Rights Watch (HRW) was “nullified”.
“Let the numbers talk. Is it congested? The answer is no. It is under-capacity,” he told the Dewan Rakyat yesterday.
Recently, in a report titled We Can’t See The Sun: Malaysia’s Arbitrary Detention of Migrants and Refugees, HRW raised concerns about the conditions at depots, claiming that ill-treatment and inadequate medical care had led to hundreds of deaths.
Of the 23 migrants and refugees interviewed by HRW, 15 said they were assaulted and witnessed beatings while in immigration detention.
They also said they faced some form of punishment during their detention.
Dismissing the allegations, Saifuddin Nasution said HRW had failed to provide evidence to the government when the human rights body was asked to do so.
“Where is the evidence? Which camp? Not even a shred of evidence was provided and yet they lectured the entire world using the report,” he added.
In response to Lim Guan Eng (PH-Bagan), Saifuddin Nasution said Myanmar nationals made up the most immigrants in the detention centres at 4,541 followed by Indonesia (3,797), the Philippines (2,914), Bangladesh (1,000), Thailand (329) and others (1,054).
“Last year, we spent RM123mil to manage all 20 depots and RM80mil was on food alone,” Saifuddin Nasution said.
“When we send them back to their home countries, we pay for their flight or ferry tickets.
“Look at how much we care for them, and yet HRW said we tortured them to death,” he said.
