ROHANI : OPS QASEH HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ISA.

Ops Qaseh implemented by the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development under the Destitute Persons Act 1997 has no connection with the Internal Security Act 1960 (ISA), said its minister Datuk Seri Rohani Abd Karim.

She said through Ops Qaseh, beggars and vagrants who were detained would be screened before being placed at the Desa Bina Diri shelter-cum-rehabilitation centre.

Rohani (pic) was commenting on the claims by certain quarters that the government was detaining beggars and vagrants without giving them the right to a fair trial, much like ISA detainees.

She said they were placed at Desa Bina Diri on courts' orders and, therefore, there was no issue of not giving them the opportunity to defend themselves.

"We save them from the streets, we screen them and we separate them. The foreigners are handed over to the Immigration Department, the addicts to the National Anti-Drug Agency.

"While we wait to hand over those with psychiatric problems to the Health Ministry, we give them a comfortable place, a bed and pillows, and if they have families, we send them back to them," she told reporters today.