Fatimah feeds one of the homeless children, as her grandmother and sibling look on.
LAWAS: A joint team led by Minister of Welfare, Women and Community Wellbeing Datuk Fatimah Abdullah conducted an integrated operation to rescue the homeless here on Friday.
The team members were from the police, Welfare Department, Health Department, Lawas Hospital, Lawas Registration Department, Lawas District Council, Information Department, State Religious Council (Jais), Immigration Department and Civil Defence Force.
“We rescued one homeless foreigner. As he did not have any identification documents on him, he will be handed over to the Immigration Department for further action,” Fatimah said after the operation, which was the first to be conducted here.
Prior to the operation, the team found one homeless elderly woman with two young grandchildren.
It is understood the children and their mother were recipients of aid from the Welfare Department.
Fatimah said she would get the Welfare Department to follow-up the case to see if there were elements of abandonment.
She urged the public to be aware of the homeless who could be helped off the streets, and praised those who have alerted the authorities.
Fatimah said information about the homeless such as age, origin and why they were homeless is being analysed by the Social Development Council.
“Even if the number of homeless people is low, we want to nip the problem in the bud,” she said.
This was the third such operation to be held in the state this year.
Five operations were held throughout last year and individual rescues were also conducted based on information from the public.
In total, 40 homeless people were taken off the streets – 36 of whom were males – last year.
From that figure, four had mental problems and four tested positive for drugs, including two underage children.