KL Immigration busts syndicate using sleep-induced children for begging

KUALA LUMPUR: The Immigration Department's Kuala Lumpur branch crippled a syndicate that exploited foreigners and children to beg around the federal capital during a raid at Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah on Tuesday (June 25) night.

It was discovered that children as young as 10 months to six years old were given medicine that was believed to induce sleep before being taken by the adults to beg on streets such as Jalan Chow Kit, Jalan Masjid India and Jalan Sentul in the mornings.

This tactic was believed to be used to garner public sympathy and subsequently increase their profits.

During the raid on a four-storey shophouse building at around 9pm, several bottles of cough medicine were found at the residence rented by the involved foreigners.

It is learnt that the building housed foreign nationals from Pakistan, Indonesia and India, with about eight people, including children, crammed into a small room, paying a monthly rental of RM800.

The raid also successfully uncovered a passport forgery syndicate operating under the guise of laundry shops, telecommunication stores and barber shops.

A Bernama reporter who was present during the raid found that the back part of the premises was used as the syndicate’s office, with the businesses merely serving to conceal their illegal activities from authorities.

Dozens of passports, suspected to have fake stamps, were also found on the premises.

Meanwhile, Kuala Lumpur Immigration director Wan Mohammed Saupee Wan Yusoff said the raid, which concluded around midnight, was the result of six months of intelligence work carried out by his team at the location.

He said 79 foreigners and one local man, aged between 10 months and 59 years, were detained.

"A total of 77 Pakistan nationals were detained, involving 44 men, 22 women, four male children and seven female children, along with one Indonesian woman, one Indian woman and one local man,” he said in a statement Wednesday (June 26).

Wan Mohammed Saupee said that all detainees were taken to the Bukit Jalil Immigration Depot and are being investigated under the Immigration Act 1959/63 and the Passports Act 1966. - Bernama