| �I beg you. Please let me know where my
husband is.�
This was Romita Hasibuan's tearful plea to the
Immigration Department which she believed, has transferred her husband,
Abdul Mutalib Taib, out of the Kuala Lumpur International Airport depot
without her knowledge.
To worsen matters, she claimed officers at
the department could not tell her where he was and if he was all
right.
Romita said she had called the detention centre last Friday
to arrange for a visit, but was informed that he was no longer
there.
"An officer with the department told me that he had been
moved, but could not specify where. I fear that he might have been
deported without our knowledge," she said.
Abdul Mutalib, 47, an
Indonesian with permanent resident (PR) status here, was nabbed by
Immigration officers on March 23 for illegally staying back after his
status was revoked in 1996.
He arrived in Malaysia in 1978 to work
and was issued PR status in 1986.
The department had issued a
notice of deportation to him on April 22, but his lawyer filed a
last-minute appeal against the order.
The department is expected to
make a decision on his status soon.
"It is a difficult time for our
family. Not only has my husband been taken away from us for over a month,
now we do not even know where he is.
"Our family needs to know if
he is all right," said Romita.
She said their four children, Maruly
Aziz, 12, Sarah Nor Varah, 11, Yonatan Adam Fauzi, nine, and Ismael Shay
Putra, six, missed their father.
"They ask for him constantly and
are praying that he is able to stay on. We need his presence as both
husband and father. We had a perfect family, and it tears me up to see it
broken down like this," she said.
"It is very stressful. I do not
know where else to turn to," she said, adding that she is now taking care
of the children by herself.
The family's lawyer, Charles Hector,
said one of his associates had contacted the Immigration Department last
Friday at 4pm to ascertain whether his client had been moved. "They could
not confirm if there had been a premature deportation or otherwise," he
said.
Hector said as the last day of appeal was set for April 29,
it was highly unlikely that Abdul Mutalib could already have been
deported.
He said they had sent two appeal letters, one to Home
Minister Datuk Azmi Khalid on April 27 and another to the Director-General
of Immigration, a day later.
"We asked for grounds and reasons for
the deportation order as without it, an effective appeal is near
impossible," he said, adding that they had not received any response from
either party.
He said as two appeals were submitted, they would
have to be heard first before any deportation order could be
made.
"We hope the Home Minister will be compassionate towards the
family, as they are struggling to keep together and live in Malaysia as
they have always done," he
said. |
