Saturday, May 28, 2005

Malaysian jails overcrowded after migrant crackdown

May 25, 2005
Philippine Daily Inquirer
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- Malaysian jails are overcrowded after a crackdown on illegal immigrants, a report said Wednesday, adding to a growing list of problems caused by the anti-migrant sweep.Prisons Department official Zamzuri Ghani told the Malay Mail the nation's 52 prisons and detention centers were built to house 30,000 inmates but were holding 45,000 people, most of them illegal migrants.The revelation came hard on the heels of an announcement that a government scheme to bring expelled Indonesian workers back into the country to fill a large labor shortage had been abandoned.Home Affairs Minister Azmi Khalid said 11 one-stop centers to facilitate the return of the workers were shut down because of a poor response.

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