Malaysia
Home Ministry: Claimed abuse at Juru detention camp ‘untrue’, case closed
Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed speaks to the media during an interview at his office in Putrajaya, August 19, 2015. u00e2u20acu2022 Picture by Yusof Mat Isa

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 21— The Home Ministry has officially closed its investigation into allegations of fatal torture at the Juru detention centre in Penang, saying that complaints from two Cambodian women who were detained there were untrue.

The ministry’s remarks come after the Immigration Department conducted a preliminary probe into the matter, and similarly found the allegation to be false.

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"The DG of Immigration has made the statement that the matter has been investigated and no such deaths occurred.

"The allegations are false,” Deputy Home Minister Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed told Malay Mail Online when contacted today.

He said that his ministry’s investigations into the abuse claims have officially been closed.

"Yes, (case closed). If there was a case the Cambodian embassy should make a formal complaint,” the Pulai MP added.

The claims of fatal abuse reportedly surfaced after Cambodian labour rights group CENTRAL sent home two Cambodian women who had worked in Malaysia as maids before they were detained in the detention centre.

One claimed that she witnessed a total of seven women die ― five Cambodians and two Vietnamese ― and that she saw the other deaths when she was asked to go along as a translator when the four were brought to a local hospital.

This Cambodian woman was sent back to Cambodia in June, along with another Cambodian woman that told CENTRAL of the "same” alleged abuse in the Juru detention centre. The second woman had also fled her abusive employer before landing at the centre.

The names of both women were not disclosed for safety reasons.

The Cambodian Foreign Affairs Ministry has since refuted the claims of the two women, and that only two out of 33 Cambodians remained at the detention depot.

According to The Cambodia Daily, one of the two would be going home soon and that the other individual, Saing Phlat, died of an unspecified "illness” on June 23.

Cambodia had in 2011 banned the sending of its nationals to work as maids in Malaysia after claims of alleged abuse by Malaysian employers and recruitment agents.

In June this year, Cambodia offered to once again send domestic maids to Malaysia, with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak then saying that Malaysia had accepted the offer.

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