Ops Qaseh implemented by the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry under the Destitute Persons Act 1997 has no connection with the Internal Security Act 1960 (ISA), said its minister Rohani Abd Karim.

Rohani ( left ) said through Ops Qaseh, beggars and vagrants who were detained would be screened before being placed at the Desa Bina Diri shelter-cum-rehabilitation centre.

She was commenting on claims by certain quarters that the government was detaining beggars and vagrants without giving them the right to a fair trail, much like ISA detainees.

Rohani said they were placed at Desa Bina Diri on courts' orders and therefore, there was no issue of not giving them the opportunity to defend themselves.

"We save them from the streets, we screen them and we separate them. The foreigners are handed over to the Immigration Department, the addicts to the National Anti-Drug Agency.

"While we wait to hand over those with psychiatric problems to the Health Ministry, we give them a comfortable place, a bed and pillows, and if they have families, we send them back to them," she told reporters after attending the Ramadan Nur Qaseh programme organised by her ministry in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

At the ceremony, Rohani presented donations from the National Welfare Foundation to 1,200 recipients comprising the handicapped, elderly and orphans.

- Bernama