Govt urged to release children in immigration depots, detention centres

Putrajaya has been urged to release all children detained by the Immigration Department in its Baitul Mahabbah centres and other facilities and have them placed in community-based alternative detention instead.

According to End Detention Network (EDN), despite Baitul Mahabbah having been established for a year to remove children under 10 from immigration detention depots, the centres still constitute another form of detention with no end in sight.

In a statement, the coalition of 21 civil society organisations and individuals said there were some 170 children reportedly detained...