Misconduct of RELA

According to a news report in Oriental Daily on 13 March, RELA threatened to throw stones and sands towards reporters, during a raid on migrant workers.

The raid was taken place at construction at Jln Kelawai, besides Gurney Hotel, at around 1.30 am on 12 March. During the raid, RELA members stopped the reporters from taking photos and scolded them. RELA also threatened to arrests them. The RELA officer in-charge present at the scene, Ismail, was not stopping his subordinates to do so; he even went to pick up hard object and threatened to throw to reporters.

3 immigration officers and around 80 RELA members were took part in the raid. More than 120 migrant workers were being checked and around 50 were arrested.

Later, Oriental Daily on 14 March reportedPenang State Director of RELA apologized for the misconduct of RELA officers. He said the raid operations are confidential and anyone else supposed don’t know about the location and time of the operation. He said after the incident on 12 March, RELA will be seriously looking into the issues of discipline and conduct of RELA members.