Malaysian rights group urge action on deaths

originally published:
2nd October 2009

Malaysia’s government-linked human rights commission Friday called for better health conditions in immigration detention centres nationwide as 18 detainees die each month from disease.

“Deaths in custody are a very serious problem,” Suhakam commissioner N. Sivasubramaniam told AFP. “According to figures released in parliament which we compiled, 1,300 immigration detainees have died from disease in custody over the last six years which works out to 18 detainees dying every month,” he said.

“These detention facilities must be improved as these detainees from Myanmar and other Asian countries come here, some have contagious diseases and some get sick from the poor conditions of the centres.”

Sivasubramaniam said there was an urgent need to upgrade the 22 immigration detention centres nationwide where “many detainees die from tuberculosis, chikungunya and leptospirosis”.

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Posted by Tippa Naphtali on 06/10/2009. Filed under Custody Deaths,Refugees & Asylum. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry