No warrants needed for Rela

No warrants needed for Rela
BY WANI MUTHIAH (Star, 26/2/2005)

PETALING JAYA: Rela members taking part in the swoop against illegal immigrants from Tuesday will be able to enter premises for inspection without a warrant.

Rela director-general Datuk Mahadi Arshad said that under the new set of rules that came into effect on Feb 1, Rela officers could enter any premises they suspected illegal immigrants were hiding in.

“In the past we had to get a warrant first before doing so but under the new powers which were recently formulated, we can just walk in and carry out an inspection,” he said.

Rela assistant operations officer Kol Zubir Mustaffa (third from left), who is also Putrajaya Rela director, helping Rela members to check their equipment at their headquarters in Putrajaya on Friday.
He said Rela officers were also granted powers to detain, peruse identification documents as well as hold detainees in custody to be handed over to the relevant authorities under the new provisions.

He said he was confident that the operation would be successful given that the new set of rules would complement Rela’s operations.

According to Mahadi, 25,000 well-trained Rela officers would participate in the operations, with support from the remaining 315,000 members to be sought whenever there was a need.

Mahadi, who would oversee the nationwide operations, also said he was certain that things would not get out of hand as the new regulations also regulated Rela members involved in the operations.

Some 500,000 Rela, Immigration and police personnel would be mobilised in the operations.

In Malacca, 1,000 of the 12,000 Rela members in the state would be deployed for Ops Tegas.

State Rela director Kol Ibrahim Abu Samah and state Immigration director Abdul Rahman Md Noor, at a press conference yesterday, said that they estimated there were about 5,000 illegals in the state.

Kol Ibrahim said based on surveys, most of the illegals were hiding in forests and remote housing estates.

Source: Star http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2005/2/26/nation/10270442&sec=nation