[landofsmiles]

There's just been a feature on BBC WORLD about RELA...the volunteer armed vigilante force who seek out illegal and undocumented defenceless foreigners in Malaysia. Supposedly there are 1/2million volunteers in this force and the government plans to double it over the next few years.

Rela Corps is a civil volunteer corps formed by the Malaysian government. Their main duty is to check the traveling documents and immigration permits of foreigners in Malaysian cities, including tourists, visitors and migrants to reduce the increasing rate of illegal immigrants in Malaysia. RELA has the authority to deal with situations like policemen, such as raiding suspected streets or places such as factories, restaurants and even hotels. They are also fully authorized to conduct the interrogation and even detaining people who forgot to bring their traveling documents, like passports and/or working permits.

Given only basic training, this civil corps is sometimes equipped with firearms, making many cases of power abuse by this civil corps. Many cases in Malaysia the RELA volunteers, abused their power, which created trauma for foreign visitors in Malaysia, have made RELA Corps to be listed in the Human Rights Watch.