DETAILS are emerging of an anarchy-like situation at the Bidor Immigration Depot last night when 131 illegal immigrants from Myanmar who were detained there began to riot before escaping from the tightly guarded facility.
No member of the law enforcement agencies stationed there, especially Immigration personnel, were injured in the incident near the town in Perak.
Perak Police Chief Datuk Seri Mohd Yusri Hassan Basri has revealed that the detainees broke the high fencing and barbed wires around the depot area to make their escape.
They then ran across the North-South Expressway (PLUS) that passes nearby to reach a forest on the other side.
One of them was later found dead at Kilometre 335 of the expressway, apparently hit by an oncoming vehicle.
Mohd Yusri expressed optimism that the operation to find these undocumented foreigners will be able to recapture them.
He said that they had fled without any possessions, and had no money, food, and personal necessities.
The Police’s Air Operations Force has joined the operation and is on the lookout using helicopters.
About 375 officers from various agencies, including the Immigration Department, the Police, the General Operations Force (GOF), and the Malaysian Volunteers Department (Rela), are already scouring areas around Bidor and Tapah.
"We believe that in such a situation, God willing, with the combined effort of all related agencies we will be able to arrest them again,” he said.
“In addition to the ordinary officers, the search to locate the escapees is also supported by the Air Operations Force from Bukit Aman.”
The search is focused on the radius around the area near the depot first.
The area is surrounded by oil palm plantations, while that across the PLUS expressway stretch is a small forest, he told a press conference at the depot's grounds today.
The depot in Bidor is sited about 60km from Ipoh and 120km from Kuala Lumpur.
Of the 131 detainees who escaped, 115 were Rohingya men and 16 ethnic Myanmar men. – The Vibes, February 2, 2024
