GEORGE TOWN: Discontent over an inmate’s death could have led to the breakout of 528 Rohingya at a temporary immigration camp in Kedah on Wednesday, police revealed today.
Kedah police chief Wan Hassan Wan Ahmad said statements from 420 adult inmates rounded up so far revealed a consistent theme of concern over the dead inmate.
Discontent had arisen over “medical-related reasons” concerning the dead inmate a day before the riot and escape, he said.
The prolonged stay at the camp, and instigation by a mastermind (dalang), could have also forced the inmates to leave.
However, the actual cause of the riot and exodus has yet to be determined as investigations were ongoing, he said.
He said the mastermind, a 34-year-old man, was one of the earliest detainees to be held there. He has been detained and transferred to another immigration depot in Selangor.
He said the mastermind was assisted by three other men.
“We can’t say for sure that the medical reason is the cause of the riot. It is not about that alone. Our investigations are ongoing,” he told reporters today during a site visit to an oil palm estate in Bandar Baharu, Kedah, where the search for the missing Rohingya is ongoing.
Wan Hassan said 88 more inmates were still at large. The search operation, which also involves the General Operations Force and police air unit, covers southern Seberang Perai, Penang, and Bandar Baharu across the Kedah border.
“Those remaining at large out there are likely very hungry as they have been without food for three days. We have sent out flyers to all kampungs alerting them about their likely presence.”
Wan Hassan said anyone found to have concealed the Rohingya could expect to be dealt with severely under the law.
The Rohingya detainees fled from the centre early on Wednesday. Six of them were killed when hit by a car while crossing the North-South Expressway 6km away.
Most of them had been under detention for two years after they first arrived by boat in Langkawi. They were then transferred to the temporary immigration depot in Bandar Baharu.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has said it had not been allowed to access any immigration detention centre in Malaysia since August 2019.
“This has unfortunately prevented UNHCR in seeing detained persons of concern in order to determine those in need of international protection and to advocate for their release,” it said in a statement. - FMT
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