Rohingya broke out of Bidor depot to escape violence, abuse - EAIC report

The Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC) has completed its investigation into the escape of 131 Rohingya prisoners who fled the Bidor Temporary Immigration Depot (DISB) on Feb 1.

It concluded that the key reason they fled was to escape incidents of extreme violence and physical and mental abuse they experienced at the depot.

As such, the EAIC has made a police report on the issue of violence and abuse against Rohingya prisoners at the depot and Kem Wawasan Langkawi to enable further investigations by the Royal Malaysia Police.

The EAIC said in a statement today that the investigation found that the reasons for the Rohingya prisoners' escape from the depot were as follows:

1) Violence and abuse: There are elements of extreme violence and physical and mental abuse experienced by prisoners at the depot.

2) Officers' insensitivity: Officers from the Immigration Department and members of the Volunteer Department Malaysia (Rela) on duty at the depot were found to be insensitive to the situation before the incident (escape).

3) Infrastructure deficiencies: The DISB building, which was a former National Service Training Programme Camp, has infrastructure weaknesses that do not meet the standard required to function as a detention depot.

4) Monitoring failures: Senior officers and supervisors failed to monitor and act to control circumstances during the incident.

Complaint received

"This investigation is conducted based on the complaint received and following subsection 27(4) of the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission Act 2009,” said EAIC.

The investigation also found that:

(i) Violence and abuse against Rohingya prisoners started from 2020 to 2021 when they were placed at Kem Wawasan Langkawi before being transferred to several immigration depots, including DISB.

(ii) Several Immigration officers at DISB, including two former officers duty at Kem Wawasan Langkawi before being transferred to DISB, had committed violent acts as well as physical and mental abuse against Rohingya prisoners, resulting in injury to them.

EAIC said it decided to refer the punishment recommendation against the officers involved to the Immigration Department's disciplinary authority.

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