As for the statistics of death in custody in 2017, there were 319 deaths while under the prison’s custody, an increase of 19% from the previous year and 24 deaths under the Immigration’s custody, a reduction of 40% from the previous year. At the time of writing, the police, however, have yet to provide the number of deaths while the detainees were under their custody. Table 4 Number of Deaths in Detention in 2015 - 2017 PLACE/YEAR 2015 2016 2017 252 269 319 Immigration Detention Centres 87 40 241 Police Lock-Ups 12 15 NA Prisons (B) Monitoring Public Assemblies and Forced Evictions6 During the year under review, the Commission monitored 8 public assemblies/ rallies. The Commission observed that the management of the rallies has improved significantly, and there was no untoward incident occurring 6 The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights described forced eviction in the general comment No. 7 (1997) on the right to adequate housing as “the permanent or temporary removal against their will of individuals, families and/or communities from the homes and/or land which they occupy, without the provision of, and access to, appropriate forms of legal or other protection” S U H A K A M A N N U A L R EPOR T 2017 81 2 During the workshop on ‘Custodial Medicine- Preventing Death in Custody’ on 22 and 23 October, the Commission was informed that the Ministry of Health (MoH) is in the discussion with the relevant agencies on the setting up of a custodial medical team as part of the efforts to address the issue of custodial deaths. The Commission welcomes the initiative as it is one of the recommendations that the Commission has made in the ‘Deaths in Police Custody: A Study on the Conditions of Lock-Ups and Factors Contributing to Death’ report. In this regard, the Commission urges the government to expedite the establishment of the custodial medical team by providing all necessary supports. C H A P T E R had there been medical screening carried out before the detention as stipulated under the Lock-up Rules 1954.