Saifuddin claims HRW couldn't furnish evidence of immigration abuse

PARLIAMENT | Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail today said Human Rights Watch (HRW) was unable to provide evidence on the torture of detainees in immigration detention centres.

The human rights NGO recently met with the Special Select Committee On Human Rights, Election And Institutional Reform over the former’s report on abuse meted out by immigration officers towards detainees, Saifuddin said.

“So far, the report is still hearsay, it does not follow any research or reporting methodology that we can use.

"No matter what, I still give it the 'benefit of the doubt’. Maybe there are things we overlooked,” he said in the Dewan Rakyat today.

Last Wednesday, HRW released a report which claimed that ill-treatment and inadequate medical care have led to hundreds of deaths in immigration detention centres.

The report, titled “We Can’t See The Sun, Malaysia’s Arbitrary Detention of Migrants and Refugees”, detailed how officers mete out punishments for noise, smoking, asking questions or raising concerns about the conditions, talking to the adjacent block, fighting or for having cell phones or others.

Of the 23 migrants and refugees interviewed by HRW, 15 reported being assaulted and all have witnessed beatings while in immigration detention.

Every interviewee also said they faced some form of punishment during their detention.

Meanwhile, Saifuddin said that he wanted concrete evidence of such occurrences in the detention centres so that he can set up an investigation committee.

He will also have a meeting with HRW in the near future.

The minister was responding to Bangi MP Syahredzan Johan, who called for immigration officers to respect human rights of undocumented migrants.

"Humanity is important because sometimes I see the operations that are done, especially with the media coverage and so on, it seems like they are treated like they are subhuman, not human beings.

“We need to make sure that these operations are carried out - we don't want undocumented migrants - but at the same time, humanity cannot justifiably be ignored,” Syahredzan said.

Earlier in his speech, Saifuddin revealed that only about 20 percent of those captured in raids are undocumented migrants.

About 80 percent have complete documents, he said.