85 passports seized in illegal rehiring bust, Bangladeshi nabbed

The Immigration Department has detained a Bangladesh national and seized 85 passports as well as cash in a raid carried out at a mini market that has been turned into an office that operated to rehire undocumented foreign workers illegally.

In a statement issued today, Immigration Department director-general Mustafar Ali said the activities were discovered during the ‘Ops Mega 3.0’ carried out in Selangor on Wednesday.

“The mini-market, owned by a company, has been operating this re-hiring programme illegally for more than a year by charging between RM5,500 and RM 8,000 each to register undocumented foreign workers.

“During the inspection, 85 copies of passports mostly Bangladeshi passports were seized as well as various company and immigration-related documents. Also seized was cash amounting to RM16,600, believed to be the result of this activity,” he said.

Mustafar said a Bangladeshi man, believed to be directly involved in the re-hiring programme operations was also arrested.

“We advise anyone wishing to liaise with the Immigration Department regarding the recruitment of foreign workers to contact us directly without any agent or mediator for advisory services,” he said.

He also advised the public to continue providing information related to illegals or any syndicates involving foreigners to help the department combating the problems.

Meanwhile, Mustafar said the Immigration Department had intensified efforts to hunt down illegal immigrants through ‘Ops Mega 3.0’ by carrying out raids at places where there were concentration of foreigners in Subang Indah, Selangor.

A total of 113 illegal immigrants, mostly Bangladeshi citizens, while the rest were Indonesian and Pakistani nationals, had been arrested for various immigration-related offences in the four-hour operation that started at 7pm on Wednesday, he said.

The operations were carried out by the Putrajaya Immigration Department involving 70 officers at 14 business premises at the Spectrum Bandar Sunway that became the focal point of foreigners.

- Bernama