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Homeless say rounded up by DBKL, left miles outside city

Around midnight, Mala was rudely awakened by a group of Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) officers, who then bundled him into a lorry packed with other homeless people.

After a long drive and being clueless as to what was happening, he was dropped off along the Karak highway with several others.

“I walked back to Kuala Lumpur in the dark. By the time I reached, it was morning,” he said.

Malaysiakini had contacted Mala through Pertubuhan Kebajikan dan Persekitaran Positif Malaysia (Seed) after being alerted of the incident.

Mala and several homeless people claimed that on May 22, DBKL officers had rounded them up and dropped them at various distant locations.

Relating what happened to him, Eddy said he was also put into a lorry with some 30 others. He and three others were later dropped at Rawang.

"They (DBKL) didn't tell us anything, they just gathered us and put us in the lorry," he said.

Eddy said that he and the others spent close to four hours walking back to Kuala Lumpur.

The incident was first highlighted by (Seed) exco member Lalita Abdullah through her post on Facebook.

"On May 22, after having the opportunity to watch the fundraising concert organised by Seed, some members of our homeless community were picked up in a massive DBKL raid in KL.

"They were herded onto a lorry and driven off out of the city...," she said.

A Seed representative later clarified with Malaysiakini that the raid had nothing to do with the concert, but some of those picked up were clients of Seed.

"It was just a round-up of homeless people in Masjid Jamek and places like that. Picking them up and chucking them outside of the city.

“I think they (DBKL) did not expect them to walk back," he said.

Contacted later, Kuala Lumpur mayor Mohd Amin Nordin Abdul Aziz said he was not aware of the incident.

Previously, he had launched a homeless shelter in Medan Tuanku in Kuala Lumpur and urged more NGOs to utilise it.

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