ALOR SETAR, March 6 – Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail has denied claims that immigration detention depots in the country are experiencing overcrowding.
According to him, so far there are about 13,000 illegal immigrants in 19 immigration detention depots across the country.
“The only situation where the depots experienced congestion was during the COVID-19 period because we could not repatriate them. Right now there are 19 depots, the number of immigrants is 13,000, where is the congestion? There is no congestion,” he told a press conference on Wednesday.
He was met by reporters after the handing over of letters of appointment to the members of Federal Village Development and Security Committees (JPKKP) in Kedah for 2024.
Saifuddin Nasution was asked to comment on whether there is overcrowding at the immigration detention depots and whether the government intends to repatriate detained illegal immigrants to their countries of origin.
He said the Malaysian Immigration Department (JIM) conducts operations from time to time to detect foreigners who do not have valid documents or expired documents covering various sectors including construction, plantation and manufacturing.
Saifuddin Nasution said based on several operations carried out, out of every 10 foreigners who were checked, 80 per cent of them had valid documents, while 20 percent did not have valid documents.
