131 Escape From Immigration Depot, One Dies In Crash - Police

IPOH (Malaysia), Feb 2 (Bernama) -- A total of 131 illegal immigrants escaped from the men's block of the Bidor Immigration Detention Depot, Thursday night.

Tapah district police chief Mohd Naim Asnawi said that of the number, 115 were ethnic Rohingya while 16 were Myanmar nationals.

He said that the police received a call from a man informing them that all the detainees had escaped from the Bidor Immigration Detention Depot.

“A man, suspected of being an escaped detainee, was involved in a road accident and died at the scene at KM335 North-South Expressway,” he said in a statement on Friday.

According to him, the search operations to locate the escaped detainees and the investigation are ongoing, with the help of officers and members of the 3rd Battalion of the General Operations Force (GOF) in Bidor, the police and the state Criminal Investigation Departments.

He said that the case is being investigated under Section 147 of the Penal Code and Section 223/224 of the Penal Code, and efforts are underway to find the detainees.

Meanwhile, Immigration director-general Ruslin Jusoh in a statement said a total of 100 Immigration Department and General Operations Force (GOF) personnel have been added to locate the 130 detainees, who escaped from the detention depot at 9.50 pm.

He said that all the members had been mobilised this morning, to continue the search operation.

He added that a total of 275 personnel, from various agencies such as immigration, GOF and the People’s Volunteer Corps (Rela), had been deployed since last night to track the detainees.

Members of the public who have information related to the escaped detainees can contact the Bidor Immigration Depot operations room at 05-434 8736, Bidor police station (05-434 2222) or Tapah police station (05-401 1222).
--BERNAMA