Papers, please!: Authorities checking the documents of the migrant workers who were playing football at a field in Kuala Nerus. — Bernama
KUALA TERENGGANU: Thirteen illegal immigrants were nabbed by the Terengganu Immigration Department while playing football at the Tok Jembal football field in Kuala Nerus.
State Immigration director Azhar Abd Hamid said 10 Myanmar and three Bangladeshi, aged 20 to 55, were arrested during the raid at 5.30pm on Friday.
He said those arrested were among 59 immigrants at the football field who had their documents inspected.
“All 13 were arrested under Section 6(1)(c) of the Immigration Act 1959/63 (Amended 2002) for not having valid documents.
“Earlier in the day, we conducted Op PeWA, a special operation against foreign nationals riding or driving vehicles, together with the Road Transport Department (JPJ) and police at the Terengganu JPJ Hall in Bukit Kecil (in Kuala Terengganu).
“From there we learned there was a group of foreigners playing football at the Tok Jembal field,” he told a press conference at Wisma Persekutuan here yesterday, Bernama reported.
He added that the department had inspected the documents of 54 foreigners during Op PeWA before detaining three Bangladeshi men and two Myanmar men for not having valid documents.
A Cambodian man was arrested under Section 15(1)(c) of the Immigration Act 1959/63 (Amended 2002) for overstaying.
In another development, Azhar said that the department inspected the documents of 5,656 immigrants throughout last year and of the total, 1,226 were detained for various offences.
“A total of 2,132 illegal immigrants placed at the Immigration detention depot in Ajil in Hulu Terengganu have been repatriated to their home countries,” he said.
Azhar added that 6,855 immigrants in Terengganu had registered under the Labour Recalibration Programme (RTK) 2.0 by 712 employers.
However, of the total, only around 50% had done the biometric system identification, he said.
“RTK ended on Dec 31 last year, so we ask employers who have registered to immediately bring their employees to the Immigration Department to do the biometric system identification. If they fail to do so, we will take action including prosecuting the employer,” he said.
