LABUAN – Police have mounted a roadblock at the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR)-sanctioned settlement of Kiamsam here after the Labuan health authority declared the settlement a Covid-19 red zone.
The 10-day roadblock, which started yesterday, is to control the ingress and egress of people and vehicles, and according to the National Security Council Labuan, it is estimated that there are about 3,200 refugees and residents in the settlement.
Labuan acting police chief Mohd Ibrahim Ghani said the roadblock is to help health personnel carry out active Covid-19 case detection and monitoring.
“The roadblock is not meant to stop people from going in and out of the settlement, but rather to ensure those (refugees and residents) undergoing quarantine stay quarantined.
“We have been told by the health authority that there are individuals in the settlement issued with quarantine orders and asked to wear pink wristbands, therefore, there is a need to mount the roadblock,” he told Bernama here today.
Areas downtown like the shoplots near Jalan Bunga Kemuning and Jalan Bunga Mayang have also been declared as red zones as several tenants tested positive for Covid-19.
Healthcare personnel are facing a major challenge in carrying out screening and contact tracing in these two UNHCR-sanctioned settlements.
Labuan Health Department director Dr Ismuni Bohari said the occupants of the densely populated Kg Muslim and Kiamsam water squatter settlements, home to Filipino refugees and other immigrants, locked themselves up in their house or fled when they saw healthcare personnel.
“We are not welcome. People there avoid us and flee. Some probably flee by boat, some hide by holding on to stilts under their houses, while others run into the woods. This is the situation impeding our efforts to trace unrecorded cases,” he said.
As of today, Labuan has recorded 1,638 cases of Covid-19 with nine deaths and five active clusters – J Bandar with 35 cases, Hujung Pasir (56), Sky Coklat (50), Saguking (413), and Titian at the UNHCR-sanctioned settlement of Kg Muslim (81). – Bernama, December 30, 2020
