Four MKN-operated PTS In Sabah handed over to Immigration Dept

KOTA KINABALU, Jan 1 -- Four Temporary Detention Centres (PTS) in Sabah operated by the Sabah National Security Council (MKN) were handed over to the Malaysian Immigration Department (JIM) today.

Sabah MKN director Sitti Saleha Habib Yussof said the main purpose of the handover was due to the fact that JIM is the manager of PTS as stated in the Immigration (Amendment) Act 2002.

“Apart from that, the management of the four PTS could also be standardised since the existing mechanisms on the management of detention centres and depots in the country had been established and handled by the department all along,” she said in a statement here today.

Sitti Saleha said Sabah MKN had supervised the operations at the four PTS since 1993, starting with the one in Tawau, followed by Sandakan PTS (1994) which was later relocated and known as Sibuga PTS in 2010, Kota Kinabalu PTS (1999) and Papar PTS (2009).

She said, in 2006, the MKN had taken over the overall management of PTS, including administration, logistics and security control through the appointment of security guard cadres from the Malaysian Government Security Officers (CGSO) agency.

“The Sabah NSC is confident that the handover of the PTS management will improve and strengthen the management of illegal immigrants in Sabah,” she said.

-- BERNAMA