GEORGE TOWN: Penang police have arrested another 19 Rohingya detainees who fled from the Immigration Department Depot in Bandar Baharu, Kedah, on Wednesday morning.
Seberang Prai Selatan district police chief Superintendent Lee Chong Chern said four of the detainees were nabbed yesterday while another 15 were nabbed today.
"All 19 Rohingya detainees were caught in and around Sungai Bakap and Nibng Tebal.
"As of 5pm today, we are still on the hunt for another 83 Rohingya detainees," he told the New Straits Times today.
Lee said the Rohingya detainees who were re-arrested were immediately handed over to the Immigration Department Depot in Bandar Baharu, Kedah, for further action.
About 4.30am on Wednesday, some 528 Rohingya detainees broke out from the detention centre after staging a protest.
Following that, local villagers managed to recapture 88 of them before surrendering them to the Immigration authority.
Subsequently, Penang police managed to re-arrest 229 of them at Km168 of the North South Expressway (NSE), more than two hours after their escape.
In their haste to flee, six of them died after being mowed down by a car while trying to cross the NSE. The dead were two men aged 36 and 20, two women aged 18 and 14, a 9-year-old boy and a girl, 8.
Yesterday, Penang police chief Datuk Mohd Shuhaily Mohd Zain said they believed the Rohingya detainees still at large could be in the state as they were barefoot and had no specific destination to go.
Mohd Shuhaily said the air unit had been roped in to help in the search for the escaped Rohingya illegal immigrants who were still at large.