LFL questions why tourists with expired visas held, despite amnesty assurances

Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) has questioned why tourists were being detained despite assurances from the authorities that they would be granted amnesty.

“We question why the tourists were detained, despite the Immigration Department's assurance that overstayed tourists whose passes expire during the movement control order (MCO) would be granted amnesty,” LFL coordinator Zaid Malek said when contacted by Malaysiakini.

Malaysiakini yesterday reported that dozens of tourists and business travellers from India are languishing under immigration detention after their 30-day multiple-entry visas lapsed during the MCO period.

Family members in India had said their relatives were picked up during raids at Masjid India in Kuala Lumpur in May and have spent more than a month in the Bukit Jalil Immigration Depot – a Covid-19 hotspot with more than 600 cases.

The Zeeawdeen family from Chennai, India, was informed by the Indian High Commission on June 15 that the 67-year-old Indian national who died in the Bukit Jalil Immigration Depot was the head of their household, Zeeawdeen Kadar Masdar.

Zeeawdeen was a tourist, stranded when flights to India were cancelled during the global lockdown. Visa documents showed he entered the country on March 17, a day before the MCO was imposed.

He was due to return to Chennai on March 20 but instead, he was put in detention for more than a month before he was found unconscious in his cell.

A test after Zeeawdeen died confirmed he was Covid-19 positive but he was not infected before he was detained, a Health Ministry document showed. A representative of the family is still waiting to collect his remains.

However, Immigration Department director-general Khairul Dzaimee Daud (above) had said Zeeawdeen is not the man who died in immigration custody on June 12.

LFL said this contradictory information regarding the Indian citizen is a “clear indication of the lack of transparency in the authorities”.

Zaid also questioned how the Indian national could have contracted Covid-19 if those detained were tested negative in the first place.

“The authorities must be put to task to answer this.

“Any death in custody must trigger an independent investigation to inquire into the matter.

“In any event, irrespective of the legal status of those detained, this further cements our earlier concern that detention depots are a hotbed for Covid-19 infection,” he said. - Mkini