The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) is working with the police to launch the health units at the Bayan Baru lock-up in Penang and the Indera Mahkota lock-up in Pahang, before moving on to Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Sabah six months later.
“The small clinic in the lock-up will have enough resources for a doctor, a nurse and an assistant to be there to check on detainees who are brought in.
“This, in the long run, will take away any suspicions on any issues of abuse or torture (while) in police custody,” Commissioner Jerald Joseph told a virtual press conference today.
Joseph also said Suhakam was investigating six cases of deaths in custody, three of which occurred in prison and the remaining three in a police lock-up.
He said Suhakam had investigated 12 cases of deaths in custody last year, of which only one case had an inquest. The majority of the deaths were a result of health complications.
Following this, he said, it was crucial for medical officers to be stationed at lock-ups to ensure the number of deaths in custody dropped.
The latest figures showed that there were 405 deaths in prisons in 2019, where most died in hospital when being treated for existing conditions.
Joseph also said Suhakam estimated that there were about 1,000 Rohingya refugees being detained at immigration detention centres. As of April last year, there were also 16 non-Myanmar refugees, with five being Palestinians.
According to him, the government was working on a policy on processing and verifying refugees and asylum seekers in the country, although there have not been any updates on its progress.
He said it was unnecessary to deny the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) access to detention centres while waiting for the policy to be implemented.
“It’s a good way forward for the government to be involved in the processing of asylum seekers but that does not need to impede the present system in place,” he said.
“Stopping the UNHCR means over 1,000 people don’t have access to check the validity of their claim as asylum seekers.”
Suhakam’s children’s commissioner Noor Aziah Mohd Awal noted that a significant number of child refugees remained detained.
Some had arrived unaccompanied, raising suspicions of child trafficking, while those who came with their family had to be separated from their parents once they reached about 10 years old.
Noor Aziah said the current living conditions at detention centres were also unsuitable for babies and young children.