KUALA LUMPUR: Immigrants who had been deported from Malaysia were not blacklisted by the Immigration Department, thus opening the possibility of them returning to the country.
These were among the findings of the Auditor General’s Report 2016 Series 1 on the Immigration Department, which found the department’s management of the deportation of immigrants as ‘less than satisfactory’.
The report, released today, said the department’s Malaysian Immigration System (myIMMs) had failed to blacklist deported immigrants. The number of those deported registered in the system also differed from those recorded by the department’s enforcement division.
“The number of removed immigrants between myIMMs and the department’s enforcement division headquarters differed by 155,813. Furthermore, they were not blacklisted and updated into the suspects list in the system,” said the report.
There were also flaws found in the contracts for the ferry service used by the department to deport the immigrants.
“Ferry service contracts were renewed four times with the same company from 2007 to 2017. Yet, there was no travel insurance coverage for the immigrants until 2015.”
The report also touched on the department’s management of its depots, which it described as ‘satisfactory’. However, it took note of several weaknesses that should be addressed by the Home Ministry and the department.
“The audit carried out between November last year and January this year also found that controlled documents in the deportation transit centre were poorly managed because they were handled by contractors.
“The appointed caterers also failed to provide meals according to specified menus in the contract and there was no quarantine room at the detention depot while others were poorly managed.”
From 2014 to 2016, the number of detainees totaled 265,550 immigrants of various citizenships. A total of 179,364 immigrants had been deported to their respective home countries via sea, land or air.
The majority of those deported were Indonesians (75,580) followed by Bangladeshi (27,283) and Burmese (17,627).
The total expenditure for detention and removal of immigrants amounted to RM95.24 million from 2014 to 2016.