By LYNCH COWAN
40 S’wakians, three Sabahans arrive Kuching to rapturous celebration
KUCHING: The state government is glad that all 47 Malaysians detained in Cambodia have finally returned home because the process of getting them released was tedious and challenging.
“No one can really understand what we went through during the process to release the detainees. We were so sick and tired, but we continued to look after the Sarawakians,” said Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development Minister Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah at a press conference after returning from Cambodia.
The Malaysians returned home with only the clothes on their back.
Fatimah recalled that they departed from Seam Reap International at 10.35am Cambodia time using a chartered flight belonging to Cambodian-based JC International Airlines.
The flight took two hours and 20 minutes to reach here at 2.15pm.
Three Sabahans, who were together with the Sarawakian returnees, were scheduled to return home at 9.30pm yesterday.
“We thank the state government especially our Chief Minister (Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg) for letting us go. Without him, we could never have made it until today,” she said.
On Feb 15 the state delegation flew to Seam Reap and from there they went to another province called Banteay Meanchey. They travelled for two hours to meet with the detainees.
“Before we met the detainees, we went to see the house where they were locked up. I saw that the windows were grilled and only one door to enter and exit the house,” said Fatimah.
She said when they finally met the detainees at the prison she felt sad upon seeing their condition as some of them had skin problems.
“But we were so thankful to the prison authority because they even provided halal food for the Muslims. They were kind enough to let us meet all the detainees,” she said.
The state government thanked Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, Cambodian Minister of Justice Ang Voon Vothana, Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Prak Sokhonn and Cambodian Senior Minister of Special Functions Datuk Othsman Hassan and other officials for the release of the detainees.
Fatimah also advised everyone, especially Sarawakians, to be careful when looking for jobs and not to simply accept what seem good at face value.
The 47 detainees, (40 Sarawakians, three Sabahans and four Peninsular Malaysians) were detained at Banteay Meanchey prison for two months since Dec 16 after their arrest on Dec 11 on suspicion of involvement in running an online gambling enterprise.
They were initially offered jobs in Cambodia that supposedly paid $1,500 per person per month.
Meanwhile, Bernama reported that the four other Malaysians – three from Selangor and one from Kuala Lumpur – arrived at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (klia2) this morning.
