Immigration forced S'pore duo to do 'nude squats'

 (Malaysiakini) Two Singaporean women were reportedly forced to do squats in the nude by Immigration Department personnel following their arrest for “illegal entry” into Malaysia.

Such a practice was declared as “inhumane and undignified” and be immediately discontinued by the Royal Commission to Inquire into the Standard Operating Procedure, Rules and Regulations in Relation to the Conduct of Body Search in Respect of an Arrest and Detention report in 2006.

According to Singapore's Chinese daily Lianhe Zaobao, the incident happened during the wee hours of June 9 when the two women drove across the Causeway from the island republic.

The duo were headed to Johor Bahru for supper, but they were apparently negligent and walked passed the immigration counter without having their passports stamped.

For this, they were reportedly detained on the charge of being illegal immigrants and held at a lock-up facility in Pontian, Johor.

Under the pseudonym of Lin Li Li, the woman told the newspaper that she and her friend Zhan Ting Ting, another psuedonym, were ordered to take off their clothes and do 10 squats.

They were reportedly only given clothes meant for detainees after performing the act. They also complained about being handcuffed and that the lock-up conditions were atrocious.

"The clothes were dirty and smelly. The cell was only as big as two third of a basketball court, but there are 50 people inside. There were also a lot of mosquitos and cockroaches.

"We were handcuffed, we were treated as detainee even though we were proved not guilty. This is an insult,” Lin was reported as saying.

Home Ministry yet to receive report

After the 24-hour detention, they were released with a warning letter from the immigration officer.

Upset with their treatment, the duo said they will never enter Malaysia again even if they were invited to do so.

According to a Sin Chew Daily website, Home Ministry secretary-general Mahmud Adam has declined to comment on the matter because he had yet to receive any report on the matter.

This is the second major allegation of abuse of power by the Malaysian authorities since November 2005, when a video of a woman forced to perform nude squats by the police began circulating on the Internet.

According to the police, the nude squats was meant to look for illicit drugs.

The incident led to the formation of an independent commission led by former chief justice Mohamed Dzaiddin Abdullah, which recommended that the practice be discontinued.