Barbed wire ... Malaysia's Semenyih immigration depot / Pic: Stephen Cooper The Daily Telegraph
THIS is the first look at where asylum seekers will be sent under Julia Gillard's proposed swap with Malaysia.
The Semenyih immigration depot, which holds up to 1500 detainees, is usually heavily fortified but The Daily Telegraph simply walked through the front gate.
A riot at the notorious depot presented the perfect opportunity for the Malaysian Home Affairs office to renovate the facility as the new home for 800 Australian asylum seekers.
In return, Australia would accept 4000 processed refugees from Malaysia.
Workers are putting final touches to the compound's buildings. The detention blocks, complete with bars, have been given a new coat of paint, new fencing and the rooms cleaned up in preparation for the new arrivals.
"It is almost finished," a worker said.
Lining the compound is 1m-high barbed wire and three giant watchtowers. Further south at Lenggeng detention depot, security has been increased.
A successful Amnesty International mission to expose the dirty conditions that women and children are living in has spooked the Ikatan Relawan Rakyat Malaysia (RELA) paramilitary corps.
The yellow beret-wearing volunteer army is made up of part-time "neighbourhood watch" storm troopers.
Refugee advocates said RELA had recently raided apartment blocks where Burmese immigrants had been hiding. If the Burmese are caught for the second time, they are sent to secretive courts within immigration depots where they are ordered to be caned with a rattan.
At Lenggeng, this reporter was frisked by RELA officers who temporarily confiscated my phone, passport and camera and I was ushered into Commander Salaze's office.
Out the front of the office in two 10m x 15m cages are two groups of Burmese refugees huddled together.
Outside, RELA officers twirl their batons under the hot sun.
"I can't let you in to have a look because we are on a heightened security alert," Commander Salaze said.
He denied the photos released by Amnesty International were taken at the camp but it is understood detainees who commit serious offences are transferred to local prisons where canings take place.
He also laughed off suggestions that 6000 detainees were caned in Malaysia every year: "The caning does not happen in any of the immigration camps, it happens in the prisons."
In April, 109 Burmese refugees scaled the rear wall of the compound and ran into the jungle. Across Malaysia, there are regular riots and mass escapes as the system struggles to cope with the influx of refugees from Burma, Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia.
"We caught most of them but some got away," Commander Salaze said.
Aerial surveillance and tracker dogs were used to hunt them down in the nearby palm oil plantations.
The Daily Telegraph could not get past the front gate of the KLIA compound, near the international airport.
There are more than 800 refugees living there.
Across Malaysia, there are more than 90,000 registered refugees and asylum seekers. -
Herald Sun, 1/6/2011, Malaysia Solution: Semenyih immigration depot a barbed wire home for asylum seekers
For more on the Semenyih depot, where asylum seekers will be sent under Prime Minister Julia Gillard's "Malaysian Solution" go to The Daily Telegraph. 
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