2,366 foreigners held for crimes, a 20% rise from 2022

KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 2,366 foreigners have been detained for various crimes so far this year, up from 1,957 in the same period last year.

The increase of 409 foreigners detained between January and November is a 20.9% rise.

“The detainees are mostly from Indonesia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, the Philippines and India,” Deputy Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay said in an interview.

Among the crimes committed are murder (202 cases), rape (111), assault or causing harm (377), robbery (1,085) and house break-ins (278).

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“For violent crimes, most foreigners were detained for cases of assault with 377 cases while for crimes involving belongings, 1,085 cases of robberies were reported so far this year,” said Ayob Khan.

On the recent operation at Mini Dhaka in Jalan Silang, the Deputy IGP said they were able to catch the undocumented foreigners by surprise as the “tonto” or lookouts were not able to warn them.

“We believe this is because police cordoned off the area fast in detaining the illegals and the ‘tonto.’

“These tonto would monitor any movement of enforcement agencies at the location. But this time, we had them in the net even before they realised what was happening,” he said.

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In the massive special operation, the police especially the General Operations Force (GOF) and Federal Reserve Unit (FRU), and other agencies raided four blocks of shops and cordoned off the area as they rounded up foreigners for various offences at Jalan Silang.

The operation was to curb the influx of undocumented foreigners in the area and to halt businesses owned by and hiring foreigners, besides the illegal activities there.

It was discovered that some foreigners were running a travel agency and a makeshift clinic with medicines not approved by Health Ministry.