PUTRAJAYA, July 3 — The Immigration Department (JIM) detained 1,509 illegal immigrants for various offences since the department carried out massive enforcement operations after the deadline to apply for the temporary Enforcement Card (E-Card) expired on June 30.
Its director-general Datuk Seri Mustafar Ali said the number of arrests was the outcome of 181 enforcement operations nationwide since July 1 until 8am this morning, involving the inspections of 5,278 foreigners.
“A total of 28 employers were also detained and 86 people were given notice to attend and give statements since the operation was carried out,” he said in a statement today.
The highest number of illegal immigrants detained were Bangladeshis (752), Indonesians (195), Myanmar (117), Filipinos (50), Thais (45), and the rest from other countries.
He added there were 1,314 male illegal immigrants, 192 females and three children.
Mustafar said employers who hired illegal immigrants could be charged under the Immigration Act 1959/63 where they would be charged under four major offences namely Section 55A for bringing illegal immigrants to the country, Section 55B for hiring the illegal immigrants, Section 55E for allowing the illegal immigrants to enter and stay in premises and Section 56 (1) (d) for protecting the illegal immigrants.
The employers could also be charged under Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants (Atipsom) Act 2007.
Meanwhile Mustafar said JIM had detected 38 cases of a new tactic of attempting to register the E-Card from the illegal immigrants who were sent back and were blacklisted.
“They entered the country using illegal methods to join the E-Card registration programme but the attempt was detected by JIM through their fingerprint taken for review and record, which revealed their actual identity and blacklisted status,” he said.
He said 40 illegal immigrants and two employers were detained for the offence.
“Members of the public with information on illegal immigrants or any information that could help in enforcement by JIM were urged to provide the information,” he said. — Bernama
