DAP’s Serdang MP Ong Kian Ming today urged the government to arrange a visit to a Klang Valley immigration detention centre to look into the welfare of the nearly 2,000 children held in such centres nationwide.

According to a written reply in Parliament, 1,918 children are among 71,362 detainees held in immigration centres nationwide

This represents about three percent of the detainees for the first nine months of the year.

Most of the children are from Myanmar (813), followed by Indonesia (422), Philippines (295) and Cambodia (121), while the Bekenu detention centre has the highest number of child detainees (299).

Expressing 'shock', Ong urged the government to ensure the safety and welfare of the children in accordance of the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC), of which Malaysia is a signatory.

He also urged the government to work with the respective embassies to swiftly repatriate the children and their parents.

He said the government could also work with the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) and NGOs to provide better accommodation for the children so they do not have to be detained.

Earlier, international news network Al Jazeera featured a documentary on the issue, where a reporter posing as a priest snuck a camera into a detention centre, to show children behind bars.