Lee speaks to the vagrants during his visit yesterday with Welfare Department officers.
MIRI: Three persons have been living in a makeshift shack next to a drain near a hypermarket in Tudan, here for the past six months.
The trio – two men aged 33 and 36 and a 19-year-old girl – claimed they had been forced to seek shelter next to the drain after being chased from home by their respective families.
Assistant Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Datuk Lee Kim Shin, who visited them yesterday, said he decided to check after his office was informed by the public about the presence of vagrants in the area.
“I went to the site with Welfare Department personnel after hearing of the trio’s plight. I have requested the department arrange for temporary accommodation for them pending further action.”
The trio’s makeshift shack.
He said police personnel were also called to the site to transport the three vagrants to the hospital for a check-up, where two of them were then found to be drug-positive.
Lee, however, declined to disclose which of the trio had tested positive for drugs, saying it is up for the authorities to decide on the next course of action.
He also called on Miri City Council to demolish and clear the illegal shelter by the roadside.