The Malaysian Insight

LOCKING up undocumented migrants in detention facilities will only create numerous Covid-19 clusters, said Zaid Malek. 

The Lawyers for Liberty coordinator said undocumented migrants should not be treated as criminals and be detained at detention centres. 

“It runs the risk of overcrowding and potentially exposing them to Covid-19 infections,” said Zaid in a statement today. 

Zaid was referring to the home minister’s statement on Thursday where he insisted that the government is rounding up migrants to vaccinate them for Covid-19. 

“The government has been repeatedly informed that mass incarceration of migrants could in fact undermine efforts to combat the spread of Covid-19. 

“Similar views were even echoed by the Malaysian United Nations office to the Home Ministry, but it has obviously been ignored. 

“Even if what the minister disclosed is true where the objective is to ensure vaccination among undocumented migrants, it begets the question as to why it would be necessary to detain them in the first place,” said Zaid. 

According to him, the best way is for the government to simply work together with UNHCR, civil societies and grassroots organisations, who have ties with the migrant community, in order to facilitate the vaccination process. 

Zaid said the government should rethink its decision on conducting this mass operation against undocumented migrants.  

Last week, Home Minister Hamzah Zainuddin said the Immigration Department will be conducting operations to detain undocumented migrants during the two-week lockdown, which began on Tuesday.  

He said the department will be holding these operations with the National Registration Department and police, adding that the Prisons Department is ready to allocate additional detention centres for those who might get arrested.  

“It’s true that last time our prisons had reached beyond their capacity. But now we’re ready. We have satellite prisons and detention centres prepared.  

“If there are still people who are stubborn, I mean foreigners, we will detain them,” said Hamzah. – June 5, 2021.