A total of 101 out of the 131 undocumented migrants who escaped from the Bidor Immigration Detention Depot in Perak earlier this month have been recaptured.
Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said the authorities are depending on the public’s information on the whereabouts of the remaining 28 escapees.
“We have managed to recapture 101 out of the 131, and two have been declared dead. The remaining (28 persons) are still at large.
“We have stopped search methods such as roadblocks within the radius (of the immigration depot) and will act based on information from the public,” he told a press conference today.
At 9.50pm on Feb 1, the 131 undocumented migrants escaped from the men’s block of the immigration centre.
One escapee was believed to have been involved in a car accident. He died at the scene at KM335 along the North-South Expressway.
Tapah district police chief Mohd Naim Asnawi said of the number, 115 were ethnic Rohingya while 16 were Myanmar nationals.
Following the escape, the Bidor Immigration Detention Depot was closed temporarily while the remaining 453 detainees were sent to depots in Machap, Malacca; Lenggeng, Negeri Sembilan; Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur; Kemayan, Pahang; and Langkap, Perak.
Saifuddin said today that the Bidor Immigration Detention Depot was originally a National Service Training camp and therefore “has its shortcomings”.
He said no decision yet on whether to continue using the site as an immigration detention depot.
Meanwhile, when asked if the ministry would begin allowing UNHCR to visit immigration detention centres, Saifuddin said he had no qualms about it and that the matter was in discussion.
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