It was 3am in the slums near Jalan Imbi in Kuala Lumpur on Oct 5 last year. Many residents were fast sleep as several hundred men and women from the People's Volunteers Corps (Rela) embarked on a major operation against illegal immigrants there.

Rela personnel, accompanied by immigration officers, had stealthily cordoned off the entire area of shop houses and low cost flats.

Armed with batons and lock-cutters, they waited for a signal, then they swarmed in and searched house to house for undocumented migrants.

Paul, a 32-year-old Burmese, was asleep in a dilapidated shop house at the time. He obediently opened the door when he heard loud bangings and was herded to an open carpark.

"Other than demanding to see our IC, they never say a word. They don't want to listen to us even if we try to explain that we have documents," said Paul who holds a recognition letter from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees based in Kuala Lumpur.

Similarly, an intern with a local NGO, Bob 27, was also detained during the raid after futile attempts to explain that he had a Canadian passport and a valid visa.

The duo were among some 2,000 people who were made to squat in the car park, some up to two hours, as they waited for immigration officers to check their documents.

While both of them came out of the incident unscathed, they claim to have known of individuals who were severely beaten by Rela personnel waiting at 'escape routes'.

"Once Rela people have taken position, there is no escape. If they are no people around, those who run normally get beaten up," said Bob, who has experienced Rela raids in the same area twice in his short stay in Malaysia.

The injured were never given first aid, they claim.

Review laws

Stories like these are increasingly common as the government steps up efforts to use Rela as their newest enforcers against illegals. This has angered civil rights groups and they are up in arms over how Rela conducts its raids.

Amnesty International director Joseph Roy Benedict believes that the 2005 amendments (see chart) to the Essential (Ikatan Relawan Rakyat) Regulations 1972, which allows use of arms, arbitrary arrest and detention as the cause of human rights abuses at the hands of Rela.

"This regulation is the core of the problem as it gives extraordinary functions to civilian volunteers to effect law enforcement," he told malaysiakini.

He said the regulation, in particular the 2005 amendments which provided Rela with wide powers but no mechanism of accountability, ought to be reviewed.

According to Rela director-general Zaidon Asmuni, just about anyone can become a Rela member after 10 days of basic training and participate in its "core business" of rounding up illegals.

He told malaysiakini in a recent interview that unlike other enforcement units, Rela personnel are not subject to disciplinary action but would have their membership stripped should they be found to have breached Rela procedure.

Human rights watchdog Suaram believes that Rela is only a small part of a larger problem - that much of Malaysia's security laws are based on laws explicitly enacted for use during periods of Emergency but remain intact today.

Suaram coordinator Chang Lih Kang explained that the Rela regulation came under the Emergency (Essential Powers) Act 1964 (amended 1979), which was passed during Malaysia's 'confrontation' with Indonesia.

"Our position is that all emergency laws must be repealed immediately. These laws, like preventive detention laws such as the Emergency Ordinance and the Internal Security Act, allow gross violation of human rights abuses which cannot be tolerated today," said Chang.

Similarly, the Bar Council in March had unanimously passed a resolution calling for a declaration that Malaysia was no longer in a state of emergency and that enforcement work by 'untrained' Rela personnel be stopped.

Rela here to stay?

The likelihood of the government reducing the activities or powers of Rela soon is slim. Rela as an enforcement unit is cost effective and its large membership ensure neccesary manpower to conduct raids.

Over the first four months of this year, Rela had already rounded up a record 15,000 undocumented migrants.

Plans are underway to recruit 50,000 more young members to boost the already 475,000 strong force nationwide. The police in comparison is only 80,000 strong, while the Immigration Department only has 2,000 personnel at their disposal.

Deputy Home Affairs Minister Tan Chai Ho had also announced that Rela would also be performing joint crime prevention rounds with the police, who are facing manpower shortage, soon.

Tan however assured that deploying members for the joint patrols would not jeapordise Rela's main aim to nab illegals.

"Unless the government beefs up other enforcement units, there is no other answer (to resolving the undocumented migrants issue)," summed up Immigration Department enforcement director Ishak Mohammed.

Part 1
Rela chief: Give us more powers
Q&A: We act within the law

Part 2
Suhakam: Rela still needed