Illegal immigrants stage mass breakout in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR, Apr 9: Malaysian police have launched a hunt for dozens of illegal immigrants after a riot and mass break-out at a detention centre in the eastern state of Sabah late on Friday, police said.

''It was a riot initially and after that there was a break-out,'' Superintendent Wong Chong Fooi told Reuters yesterday by phone from Sabah, which shares borders with Indonesia and Brunei on the island of Borneo.

Sixty-two people broke out of the centre outside Sabah's capital, Kota Kinabalu, though there were no injuries, he said. About 100 police plus immigration and detention staff were scouring areas in and around Kota Kinabalu, and had arrested 27 people, including 11 who were confirmed as escapees, he added.

''We are in the process of identifying the others to see if they are from the detention centre,'' he said.

A total of 55 men and seven women had jumped over the perimeter fencing at the centre during the confusion caused by the riot, state news agency Bernama said. The centre held about 1,400 detainees, it added.

In November, a riot broke out at the centre, involving 168 illegal immigrants from Indonesia and Pakistan, Bernama said. Two immigration officers were injured but no one escaped, it added.

REUTERS