KUALA LUMPUR: The home ministry has no qualms about allowing the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to visit detainees at immigration detention centres.
Home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said his ministry and UNHCR had agreed on the matter during previous discussions, adding that they had developed a “good relationship” with each other.
“There’s an ongoing effort for data sharing between us. As part of that process, there were several things we sought that they agreed to,” he told the media at the General Operations Force’s central brigade headquarters.
“They also sought some things and we agreed to that. Among them is the permission to visit (immigration detention centres).
“So far, there’s no issue with that, based on previous engagements that we’ve had, either in Kuala Lumpur or during the Inspector-General of Police’s (Razarudin Husain) work trip to New York last November.”
In a statement earlier this month, UNHCR claimed it had not received approval from the immigration department to access detention centres since August 2019.
The UN agency said this prevented them from visiting detention centres, including the one in Bidor, from which 131 detainees recently escaped.
In the statement, UNHCR expressed concern that the detainees, who may be asylum seekers or refugees, required their attention.
Saifuddin said the detainees who escaped from the Bidor detention centre had been moved to another undisclosed location pending the authorities’ decision to turn it into a permanent depot.
Separately, Saifuddin said the ministry would engage with as many MPs as possible to inform them about the difficulties police have been facing now that Section 4 and 15B of the Prevention of Crime Act (better known as Poca) have been struck down.
In April 2022, the Federal Court ruled the two provisions as unconstitutional as they intruded into the judicial domain and therefore violated the doctrine of separation of powers.
Section 4 lays down the procedures for magistrates to grant remand orders to the police, while Section 15B, which is an ouster clause, restricts judges from inquiring into the grounds for detention.
Saifuddin said his ministry was ready to engage with various stakeholders before proposing amendments to the two sections.
“We need more engagements on this matter and we are focusing on participation from lawmakers,” he said. - FMT
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