No vagabonds found during operation
LIMBANG: A Save-Vagabonds operation conducted by the Welfare Department here on Monday night failed to find any vagrant.
Minister of Welfare, Women and Community Wellbeing Datuk Fatimah Abdullah said the operation which started at 9am at several suspected locations in town did not yield any results but they found their personal belongings at the bus terminal and multi-storey car parks.
“These are proof that they are around although they were nowhere to be found,” she said at the Limbang Senior Citizens Service Centre after the integrated operation ended at 10.25pm.
Led by Fatimah herself, the operation involved 62 government officers from various departments.
Joining her were Assistant Minister of Welfare and Community Wellbeing Dr Abdul Rahman Ismail, Limbang MP Hasbi Habibolah, Batu Danau assemblyman Paulus Palu Gumbang, Welfare Department director Abang Shamshudin Abang Seruji, Limbang Resident Datu Maria Hasman, Limbang district officer Jamalie Busri and divisional welfare officer Haslinda Supu.
According to statistics from the Welfare Department in 2015, there was a homeless family with two children who did not go to school here.
“This family made Limbang Tamu building their ‘home’, and the department has assisted them with welfare aid, equipment and other forms of assistance to make them independent and no longer vagabonds,” she said.
She called on the Welfare Department office here to be on the lookout and provide assistance if they come across such people in the district.
Five such operations were carried out in 2016 - two in Kuching and one each in Bintulu, Sibu and Miri.
Records show that vagabonds in Sarawak are relatively small in number compared to other states but Fatimah said the state government is taking the matter seriously and would nip the problem in the bud.