JOHOR BARU: Thirteen Malay-sians and a Singaporean were detained recently for leaving the country illegally through the Customs, Immigration and Quarantine Complex (CIQ).
However, those detained, which included two women, claimed they rode past the immigration booth for motorcyclists on their way to work on Thursday but it was unmanned and the barrier gate was up.
During her detention, one of the women pillion riders, who was five-weeks pregnant with her first child, had a miscarriage.
Yesterday, husband Evaraj Subramaniam, 23, said he and his wife, Indra Arumugam, 23, were travelling to Singapore on their motorcycle as usual when they were stopped at the end of the motorcycle lane at 6.30am.
Evaraj, a site supervisor, said the officer asked why did they not scan their passports and when they explained there was no one at the counter and the barrier gate was open, the officer replied they were at fault for not stopping.
He said they were then detained and taken to the CIQ holding centre.
Evaraj said the men and women were then separated and taken to different cells there.
“At around 5pm, Indra was taken to the hospital for a medical check-up and then taken to the Pekan Nenas detention centre,” he said, adding that an immigration officer contacted him at 5.30pm to say “bini awak tak mengandung (your wife is not pregnant).
“I was released the next day after posting police bail but I’m now worried for Indra’s health and safety as she is still at the centre.”
Evaraj was speaking to reporters during a press conference organised by Skudai assemblyman Dr Boo Cheng Hau here yesterday. All the Malaysians who had been detained were present.
Ong Yan Hui, 32, who works as a clerk in Singapore, said the incident was a “huge embarrassment.”
Ong, who shared the same cell as Indra, said she told the immigration officer that Indra was in pain but no one attended to her.
Engineer Gary Nagenchandra, 32, also said it was not the first time the barrier was up and the booth unmanned.
“Sometimes when we ride past, the officers will not even look at our passports, let alone scan them. Some of them will be reading the newspaper or even smoking.”
He too said he explained the booth was unmanned but the officer said he should have stopped anyway.
Dr Boo urged the immigration department to investigate the case.
State immigration director Nasri Ishak could not be contacted for comment.
::: In my own perspective, I can see that the law is only the plain statement if the responsible person does not implement it and take a correct action. After reading the news, I found that in our country, there are many people who actually forgot their responsibilities of their job and tend to blame other people and keep them in trouble. This is an honest opinion about our society nowadays. Some people love to judge people without thinking the reason that situation was happened. Same goes to the issue above, the so called responsible person seems doesn't like to do their job but are so willing to point finger towards other people without realizing that all these happened because of their own fault and careless. What I've learned from this issue is implementation of the law and an action taken from it must be done correctly. In other words, it should not make any questions or arguments from society since it has been done accordingly. On the other hand, an individual who are appointed to hold this responsibilities MUST really understand their job scope and willing to implement it as well; not just because of the amount of salary offered. As a responsible person, we should know for what purpose we have been hired for the particular position. It is wrong if you think that you are hired only to blame people and punish them:::
