Some foreigners hiding inside a giant manhole at a construction site during an immigration operation at a construction site in Sedenak in Johor on Friday.
JOHOR BARU: A total of 103 foreigners from eight countries have been nabbed in major immigration operations at a construction site and a factory in the state.
Johor Immigration director Baharuddin Tahir said that in the operation at the construction site, many of the illegals tried to evade the enforcement team by hiding within manholes and under cranes.
“We rounded up about 56 foreigners in the 2.45pm operation codenamed Ops Mahir, at a construction site in Sedenak yesterday,” he said.
He said the detainees comprised 13 people from China, Pakistan (12), Bangladesh (12), Indonesia (eight), Myanmar (seven), India (three) and Nepal (one), all aged between 21 and 48.
A total of 318 foreign workers were screened.
In Kluang, Baharuddin said 47 foreigners were nabbed at a factory for working without proper permits in a 10.30am raid on Thursday.
He said the foreigners were 23 from India, Bangladesh (21), Sri Lanka (two) and Pakistan (one), all aged 22 to 56.
“A total of 135 foreigners were screened during the raid,” he said, adding that the department acted on a tip-off.
He said the suspects were also nabbed for various offences such as not having proper travel documents, overstaying and contravening the terms of their passes.
He said the department carried out Ops Mahir to nab foreigners who misuse workforce recalibration (RTK 2.0) slips as a means to work illegally in Malaysia.
Baharuddin said all the foreigners from both raids are being held at the Setia Tropika Immigration detention centre.
He advised employers to register their illegals under the RTK 2.0, which expires on Dec 31.
