The detention of children during crackdowns on undocumented migrant workers are often only carried out as a last resort, an Immigration Department officer said today.

According to Immigration deputy director (operations, investigation and prosecution) Eadie Nor Faizal, undocumented migrants with children are commonly let off with a stern warning.

"When we do an operation, if we see there are children, families... typically the husband is the breadwinner and the wife is unemployed.

"We will give them a warning. We will tell them, 'Please go and make the necessary arrangements'," Eadie told reporters when met after a Bar Council national consultation session on a comprehensive policy for migrant workers at the Raja Abdul Aziz Adruce auditorium in Kuala Lumpur.

"Typically we will not arrest them. We also know that our (detention) facilities are inadequate.

"We don't even have a dedicated facility for children," he added.

Eadie stressed that during these raids, other considerations are also made with respect to basic human rights, particularly the rights of the child.

In cases where the father is the sole breadwinner, however, he pointed out that there was no guarantee on the welfare of both mother and child left behind.

"(Even) if we arrest the father and let the mother and child go, if they have neighbours or relatives to help, Alhamdulillah.

"But for those who do not have any neighbours, who will take care of the child? That's a problem," he said.

'We can't deny their basic rights'

Commenting further, Eadie pointed out that Malaysia's immigration laws technically forbid a migrant worker from getting married or giving birth while being employed in the country.

He acknowledged, however, that marriage and childbirth are basic human rights that cannot be denied.

"Because it is basic human rights, we cannot tell them they are not allowed to marry or give birth, although technically they are not allowed," he said.

At the same time, Eadie also cautioned migrant workers against using their children as an excuse to avoid arrest.

For migrant workers who have children in the country, he added, it is incumbent on the parents to register their children with authorities of their home countries and obtain a passport and subsequently turn themselves in to the Immigration Department here.

"We will then have to check. If we find that the parents are no longer eligible to stay in Malaysia, then they will have to resign, take their child home," he stressed, adding that it is also the parents' duty to protect the rights of their child.

"The problem is when they don't fulfil the basic rights.

"When it comes to the point that Immigration Department officers have to arrest them, at that point they would have committed an offence," he said.

At the national consultation session today, Eadie spoke alongside Suhakam commissioner Loke Yim Peng and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) programme director Joanne Chua.

In her own presentation, Loke said part of Suhakam's recommendations to the government includes the establishment of alternative immigration detention centres for children.

Putrajaya has renewed its crackdown on undocumented migrant workers this year, with Immigration director-general Mustafar Ali saying in September that the department had detained 30,000 undocumented migrants since Jan 1.