KUALA LUMPUR, July 28 — All 113 refugees temporarily housed at the Kuala Lumpur contingent police headquarters since yesterday have been moved to a facility designated by the Kaladan non-governmental organisation (NGO).
Brickfields police chief ACP Hoo Chang Hook said all the refugees, including an Iraqi man, a Somali woman, and an Indonesian woman married to a Rohingya refugee, left the police headquarters by 4pm.
“All 113 refugees moved out of the Kuala Lumpur IPK to the destination set by the NGO,” he said in a statement today.
Kuala Lumpur police chief Datuk Fadil Marsus said the refugees were handed over to Kaladan, which is based in Ampang, Selangor.
“All the refugees are placed under the management of Kaladan from Ampang, Selangor. The oldest refugee is 60 years old, and the youngest is a one-month-old infant,” he said in a separate statement today.
Previously, Fadil said that all the refugees were found to possess valid United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) documents following verification and documentation checks.
“The breakdown of the Rohingya refugees comprises 36 adult men, 21 adult women, 31 boys, and 22 girls,” he said.
The group arrived in Kuala Lumpur early yesterday morning in three buses after local residents evicted them from their settlement in Penang.
Immigration director-general Datuk Zakaria Shaaban said the department’s depot facilities could not house the refugees because they are strictly for foreign nationals without valid travel or identification documents.
He added that UNHCR cardholders may remain in Malaysia on humanitarian grounds, subject to existing local laws.
