ISKANDAR PUTERI: Travelling fees for illegal immigrants have gone up with the Johor Customs Department saying that human trafficking syndicates are charging RM3,000 per head for those who wish to use illegal routes to return to Indonesia for Hari Raya.
The fee is slightly higher, the department said, while not disclosing the usual fare.
Its director, Aminul Izmeer Mohd Sohaimi, said enforcement personnel from its marine unit had arrested 12 Indonesians on a boat heading to Batam island on March 15.
“They spotted the boat during their rounds in the waters off Tanjung Pelepas at around 2am. They stopped the boat and detained 12 people on board,” he told a press conference at Kompleks Sultan Abu Bakar here yesterday.
Aminul Izmeer said those arrested were two tekong (middlemen) and 10 illegal immigrants aged between 25 and 50, all of whom did not possess any valid documents. He said the middlemen had been remanded for seven days to assist in further probes under the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007, while the illegal immigrants were handed over to the Immigration Department.
He said the boat, valued at RM42,000, was also seized.
Aminul Izmeer said the department foresees an increase in illegal Indonesian immigrants leaving for home for the Hari Raya celebrations, which is expected to fall on April 10 or 11.
In two unrelated operations, Aminul Izmeer said the department had also seized over 21 million sticks of undeclared cigarettes, estimated at RM18.3mil, at Tanjung Pelepas Port on March 4 and March 13.
The cigarettes were found behind boxes of plastic toys in two containers destined for Mexico, he added.
