KUALA LUMPUR – The Immigration Department holds the record for having the most deaths in custody for 2022, with 150 deaths, while police had 11 and the Prisons Department, nine.
These figures were released in a parliamentary written reply by the Home Ministry yesterday.
The ministry said the Immigration Department’s records showed that from January to December last year, the 150 deaths were of foreign nationals in custody.
This involved 121 adult male detainees, 25 adult females and seven children. Five of the children were boys and two were girls, the ministry said in reply to Chow Yu Hui (Raub-PH), who asked for the number of deaths in custody in police lockups, prisons and immigration depots.
Chow also wanted to know the gender, age, race and citizenship status of those who died in custody.
As for deaths in police custody, the home ministry said the 11 fatalities involved nine Malay prisoners, one Chinese and one foreign national.
Four of them were between the ages of 30 and 39, three in the 40 to 49 age bracket, another three aged 50 to 59, and two were between the age of 60 and 69.
The nine custodial deaths under the Prisons Department all involved males. Of this, four were Malays, three Chinese, one was Indian and one was Vietnamese.
Two of them were between the ages of 30 and 49, four between 50 and 59, and three between 60 to 69. – The Vibes, February 22, 2023
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