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SANDAKAN – An elected representative and an activist are urging the Immigration Department for transparency and accountability following claims that detainees had died at the Tawau immigration detention depot after being denied medical treatment.
Sri Tanjong assemblyman Justin Wong said two individuals sought assistance from him, claiming that their family members have died at the detention centre this year after they were denied medical treatment.
The first one, a stateless man named only as Totok, with only a birth certificate to prove that he was born in Sabah, said that his father was denied medical treatment at the depot centre and had died in the centre this year.
After he was informed of his father’s passing due to health reasons, he was denied the chance to see his father’s remains.
Totok admitted that he was once detained at the same centre, but was later released as he has a birth certificate.
Now, Totok is worried for the safety of his mother who remains detained at the centre.
The second person who identifies as Marvin said his wife and four children were arrested and detained at the centre for 18 months before his wife passed away in the centre due to a brain infection earlier this year.
“Marvin said his wife was denied medical treatment even after she requested it upon allegedly being in critical condition.
“He is now concerned with the wellbeing of his four children aged 6 to 9 years old, with the youngest child, a boy, a critical asthma patient,” Wong said at a press conference in Tawau today.
Wong said as an assemblyman, he knows that these incidents involving migrants are not under his jurisdiction, but he could not just ignore the matter as it involves human beings that are being mistreated, with some lives lost.
He called on the Home Ministry and Immigration Department to lodge a detailed investigation of the cases, and explain why the detention centre officers refused to provide medical treatment to the detainees.
He also urges the Immigration Department to provide assurance that the wellbeing of Marvin’s four children will be well taken care of, or they should be released and returned to their father.
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In June, an Indonesian-based civil society movement reported that 18 Indonesian nationals were believed to have died while inside Tawau’s immigration detention centres between January and March this year.
The report also described former detainees’ experience in the depot, saying that they only slept on cardboards, with some sleeping in the toilet due to insufficient space.
Last month, Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainuddin told the Parliament that 247 detainees – 217 men, 26 women and four boys have died in immigration depots nationwide from January 2021 to July 12, 2022.
He said of this total, 154 were Indonesians and Filipinos who died at immigration depots in Sabah.
Meanwhile, a local humanitarian activist David Liew, who sought help from Wong, stressed that the detainees’ living condition is highly questionable as the Immigration Department has been denying visitation to the depots by all parties, including non-government organisations and even the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam).
“I demand transparency, accountability and sensibility as human beings when it comes to managing such depot facilities. I wonder if our government, including ministers, or even the Immigration director-general know of all these, or they are playing blind and deaf,” he said.
Liew noted that the Immigration Department has not replied to any of his inquiries on deaths that took place in the centre.
He demanded the depot provide access for human rights groups, or elected representatives, and for accountability in all death cases there.
Liew also asked for Marvin’s four children to be released, saying that he is strongly against the imprisonment of children. –The Vibes, Aug 18, 2022.
