KOTA KINABALU – Eighteen Indonesian nationals are believed to have died while inside Tawau’s immigration detention centres between January and March this year, according to a report by an Indonesia-based civil society movement.
In its report titled Seperti di Neraka: Kondisi Pusat Tahanan Imigrasi di Sabah, Malaysia (Akin to Hell: Conditions at Immigration Detention Centres in Sabah, Malaysia), Koalisi Buruh Migran Berdaulat said that the numbers of Indonesian migrants who have died at the detention centres in the state due to severe ill-treatment could be more.
The group compiled the report after interviewing up to 100 former Indonesian detainees upon their repatriation back to the archipelago nation.
Those interviewed were part of the 2,191 migrants and their families who were repatriated in 10 transfers from Sabah to Nunukan, north of Kalimantan carried out between March and June last year.
Koalisi Buruh Migran Berdaulat also stated that 57 of them are children under the age of five.
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“Throughout March last year until April, nine observations were made on the conditions of Indonesian migrants and their families who were deported back to Nunukan from all five detention centres in Sabah.
“Our observation was conducted via meetings and interviews with 100 deportees at the quarters run by UPT BP2MI Nunukan or the Unit Pelaksana Teknis Badan Pelindungan Pekerja Migran Indonesia based in Nunukan, north of Kalimantan,” the group stated.
“Except in Sandakan, the immigration detention centres elsewhere often exceed their capacity.
With a space of 8m by 12m, each block was full of detainees. Each detention centre comprises around 10 to 14 blocks and were described as dirty and lacking sunlight.
“Unpleasant smell filled several blocks while the toilets were extremely dirty.
“There were no beds provided. Each detainee slept on the hard floor with only cardboards as beds.
“The detainees also had to huddle together when sleeping (due to cramped spaces). Their feet would sometimes touch the heads of other detainees under them.
“In the Tawau detention depot, the detainees also had to sleep in the toilet due to the overcrowding,” the group claimed.
The group further claimed that each detention centre only had a single toilet, with three toilet holes in them, which was insufficient to accommodate over 200 detainees in each block.
From the three toilet holes, only one would be working as the others would be clogged.”
Due to these extreme conditions, the civil society movement claimed many of the detainees had to hold their “call of nature” most of the time, with some stating that they did so for up to two or three weeks.
The report also stated that all of the detention centres in Sabah lack basic healthcare – without clinics, health facilities or medical officers – while available medicines sold to detainees are usually marked-up way above market prices.
“Basic medicines such as paracetamol, antibiotics, other pain killers and itch medicines sold by officers through several detainees are very expensive.
“For instance a strip of paracetamol with 10 tables was being sold for RM50 at the Kimanis detention centre, when it is available elsewhere for just RM4,” the report added.
The interviews with the former detainees are published in a report available publicly at this link, while the summary report is available here. – The Vibes, June 26, 2022
