Deputy Home Minister Nur Jazlan Mohamed has said he will visit immigration detention centres following a Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) report that highlighted filthy and overcrowded conditions at one such centre.

“I will go visit the centres and see what can be improved. But it is a question of budget as well,” he said when contacted today.

When asked when the visits would be made, Nur Jazlan said he would be going “as soon as possible,” but mentioned he was currently busy visiting police lockups after Suhakam reported on the inhumane conditions discovered at a lockup in Pulai, Johor Baru last month.

After a recent spot-check conducted at the Tanah Merah Immigration Depot in Kelantan, Suhakam chief commissioner Razali Ismail described it as being overcrowded and filthy, with poor ventilation and blocked toilets.

Also noted was how both detainees and staff had developed health conditions like scabies – an infectious skin disease.

Nur Jazlan explained that overcrowding happened as a result of the Immigration Department’s enforcement raids, carried out almost daily since June 30 this year as part of “Ops Mega,” a nationwide operation aimed at removing undocumented migrants.

“We are doing exactly what people want us to do – enforcement. But once we do enforcement and catch (undocumented migrants), our detention centres become overcrowded.

“Detention centres across the country can only take in 13,000 people, but each time Immigration goes on raids, they arrest 300 to 400 people. If they go on 10 raids, that’s already 3,000 people,” he told Malaysiakini.

More than 10,000 undocumented migrants have been arrested in the raids so far, Immigration director-general Mustafar Ali previously said.