SOPs BEING FORMULATED TO BETTER MANAGE IMMIGRATION DEPOTS

PUTRAJAYA, Aug 25 (Bernama) -- The Home Ministry is formulating standard
operating procedures (SOPs) for the management of Immigration depots which are
now reported to be overcrowded, said its secretary-general Mahmood Adam.

He admitted that the 13 Immigration depots througout the country were operating
beyond capacity and that the SOPs were expected to be ready in three months
time.

“There will be a new SOP. We don’t have that currently and (we don’t know) where
to refer to. That is why we have to study for a new SOP. Before this, it was a
combination of SOPs from Prisons Department, Immigration and Police.

“We are also engaging with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM),
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR) and Suhakam (Malaysian
Human Rights Commission) to help us to come up with the new SOP,” he said at a
press conference here Tuesday.

He was commenting on a newspaper report stating that most of the detention
centres were in deplorable conditions and overcrowded.

He added that the overcrowding problem needed to be attended to urgently as the
numbers kept increasing but it was sometimes difficult because of documentation
problems.

"We have to deal with our foreign counterpart for them to speed up the process.

“Through my experience in Immigration, it depends on the documentation. If there
is proper documentation, the next day flight we can send them back. Sometimes
the problem is disputed.

"Let say one country said this is not my citizen. Then it becomes an issue. They
will be stuck here for years," he said.
-- BERNAMA