Putrajaya has been urged to release all children detained by the Immigration Department in its Baitul Mahabbah centres and other facilities and have them placed in community-based alternative detention instead.

According to End Detention Network (EDN), despite Baitul Mahabbah having been established for a year to remove children under 10 from immigration detention depots, the centres still constitute another form of detention with no end in sight.

In a statement, the coalition of 21 civil society organisations and individuals said there were some 170 children reportedly detained...