PETALING JAYA: All 113 refugees, including 110 Rohingya, who are currently under police supervision will not be placed in Immigration detention depots.
Immigration director-general Datuk Zakaria Shaaban said Immigration detention depots are only used to house foreign nationals who do not possess travel documents or valid documentation.
He said individuals holding the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) cards are allowed to remain in Malaysia on humanitarian grounds, but they are still subject to the country’s laws.
“All 113 refugees cannot be placed in Immigration detention depots.
“They are currently under temporary police supervision while awaiting a final decision on their placement,” he said when contacted Tuesday (July 28).
Zakaria also stressed that although UNHCR cardholders are permitted to stay in the country on humanitarian grounds, the authorities would not compromise on any violations of Malaysian laws and regulations.
Earlier, a decision on a new location to accommodate the 113 refugees, including the 110 Rohingya, had yet to be finalised.
For now, all of them are being temporarily housed at Dataran Wira at the Kuala Lumpur police headquarters pending further instructions from the authorities.
Meanwhile, Kuala Lumpur police chief Comm Datuk Fadil Marsus said all 113 refugees, including the 110 Rohingya, had been brought to the Kuala Lumpur police headquarters.
He said the area in front of the UNHCR office is considered a sensitive location and cannot be used as a temporary settlement by any individual or community.
The group was transferred to the Kuala Lumpur police headquarters at 8.50pm on Monday in cooperation with UNHCR representatives.
Comm Fadil said the group included one Iraqi man, one Somali woman and one Indonesian woman who is married to a Rohingya refugee.
The remaining 110 were Rohingya refugees comprising 36 adult men, 21 adult women, 31 boys and 22 girls.
The documentation process for all the refugees was carried out by officers from the Kuala Lumpur Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Kuala Lumpur Narcotics Criminal Investigation Department (NCID), Kuala Lumpur Internal Security and Public Order Department, together with UNHCR representatives.
The documentation process confirmed that all of the Rohingya refugees possessed valid UNHCR documents.
