KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has detained 1,368 undocumented migrants in an area under lockdown in the latest such raid despite fears the crackdown could push vulnerable people into hiding and increase the risk of coronavirus infection in overcrowded detention centres.

The people from Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Myanmar and Bangladesh were rounded up in an area near a large market just outside the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur, the Immigration Department said in a statement on Tuesday.

The raid on Monday, which included 261 women and 98 children, followed a similar roundup last week, which alarmed the United Nations and rights groups.

The migrants’ offences included lacking proper identification, overstaying, and holding false papers, authorities said. They have defended the arrests as necessary to preserve law and prevent the migrants from travelling.

With 6,742 cases and 109 deaths, Malaysia eased movement curbs earlier this month but has kept tight restrictions on several areas where there have been new outbreaks of the Covid-19 disease.

The Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network said many of those arrested on Monday were asylum-seekers not formally registered by the United Nations’ refugee agency UNHCR.

Published in Dawn, May 13th, 2020