Bangladeshis among 51 migrants detained in Malaysia

Malaysian Immigration Police last night (May 27, 2022) detained 51 foreign nationals, including Bangladeshi migrant workers, for not possessing valid documents.

The arrests were made after conducting drive at Pasar Besar Klang Meru area.

During the drive, police examined documents of 704 migrants. Among them, 637 were UN refugee card holders while 51 migrants were detained for not having any valid documents.

Among the detainees, there were citizens of Myanmar, Bangladesh, Indonesia and India. However, the exact number of Bangladeshis detained in the drive could not be known.

Malaysian Home Minister Hamzah Zainudin, the ministry's secretary general Wan Ahmad Dahlan bin Haji Abdul Aziz and Immigration department's director general Khairul Dzaimee Bin Daud were present during the drive.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Home Affairs of Malaysia has raised questions about the provisions of the UN refugee card. It raised questions about the activities of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as they found refugee identification cards with several Indonesian nationals during the drive.

While talking to journalists, Home Minister Hamzah Zainudin said that UNHCR refugee cards have been found with several Indonesians during an enforcement operation conducted by the Malaysian Immigration Department.

"How can UNHCR arbitrarily issue such cards?" he asked.

The Home Minister will continue its drive to nab 60 Rohingya refugees who are still at large after fleeing an immigration detention centre in Kedah last month.

On April 20, 2022, a total of 528 Rohingya refugees escaped from the temporary detention centre. Seven of them died in a road accident while crossing a nearby highway.