NIBONG TEBAL: It was 4am when Dil Akhbar Ariffin, 46, was awakened by what he thought were gunshots.

       He got out of bed and stepped outside, only to see large groups of Rohingya refugees trekking past the village.

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       “There were at least 100 in one group, and we (the villagers) were outnumbered. We could not stop them.

       “I saw a man who was limping being supported by his friends,” he said, adding that he grabbed a parang as he was worried for his family’s safety.

       Dil Akhbar said the villagers guarded their homes and the village until the police arrived.

       Fellow Kampung Relau resident Syamsuddin Che Adini, 29, said he was outside his house when he saw the large group of detainees walking out of the detention centre.

       He said a panicked Rela member asked the villagers for help as the detainees had escaped.

       Syamsuddin then roped in some villagers to help secure the area.

       “I called up my close buddies Sanusi, Tarmizi, Mek Onn and Along.

       “Together in a pickup truck and on motorcycles, we tracked the escaped detainees and ‘escorted’ them to prevent them from getting into other nearby villages,” he said.

       The villagers living near the Sri Impian Immigration depot in Bandar Baharu, Kedah not only kept their neighbourhoods safe but managed to capture some of the 528 escapees and send them back to the detention centre.

       The villagers also witnessed some of the detainees being knocked down by vehicles on the North-South Expressway.

       Syamsuddin said the detainees walked together up to the Sungai Kechil area before dispersing, while some fled into a nearby oil palm plantation.

       “Those whom we managed to persuade to surrender were ferried back in the pickup truck to the depot,” he said, adding that they made at least five trips.

       However, some detainees walked through the plantation and arrived at the edge of the North-South Expressway fencing.

       “We pleaded for them to stop and not cross, but they were panicking. They climbed over the fence and dashed across the highway.

       “It was a horrifying scene as speeding vehicles rammed into some of them, including women and children, killing them on the spot,” he said, adding that others then stopped moving until the police arrived.

       Throughout the day, enforcement authorities scoured the entire area for other escapees.

       Many were caught hiding in the plantations.

       Meanwhile, the probe into the riot at the detention centre in Relau should be carried out by an independent body and not agencies under the Home Ministry, say human rights groups.

       Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) commissioner Jerald Joseph described the incident as shocking and “a tragedy”.

       “An independent body made up of representatives other than those from the Home Ministry should be set up to investigate the incident,” he said.

       He added that the investigation should look at the current status of detainees at the centre, particularly the Rohingya, as they were caught in limbo.

       “Unlike the usual illegal economic migrants who are detained, processed and deported back to their country of origin, the Rohingya are more like stateless refugees and asylum seekers.

       “There are over 1,000 of them in detention centres who have been held for an indefinite period and they can’t be sent back to Myanmar.

       “The investigations should also look into what sparked the protest and riot. The protest happened at such an early hour in the morning,” said Joseph.

       North-South Initiative executive director Adrian Pereira also called for an independent probe into the incident.

       “There have been protests at detention centres before, but this rarely happens in our country. There must have been a tipping point, which led to the incident,” he said.

       Apart from the independent probe, Pereira also called for an audit to be carried out on the detention centre.

       “There should be a thorough audit to determine how the centre is managed,” he said.

       At present, he said there is no oversight mechanism to keep tabs on such centres, apart from efforts carried out by charity organisations to assist inmates.

       He also suggested that the Immigration Department and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) work together to resolve issues related to the Rohingya.