SUNGAI PETANI: The Kedah Immigration Department has busted a human trafficking syndicate.
During a raid on a transit house in Kuala Muda on Tuesday, 18 illegal immigrants of Rohingya ethnicity from Myanmar, aged between 12 and 40, were apprehended.
Kedah Immigration director Mohd Ridzzuan Mohd Zain said two local male suspects, believed to be the smuggling operation’s masterminds, have also been detained.
“All the illegal immigrants are believed to have recently arrived from a neighbouring country by sea before being transported by land to the transit house.
“They were scheduled to be handed over to relatives in Malaysia after paying a specific fee imposed by the syndicate,” he said in a statement yesterday, Bernama reported.
Authorities are currently investigating the exact number of foreigners smuggled by the syndicate and whether they have links to the recent mass landing of hundreds of Rohingya in Langkawi.
After receiving public tip-offs and gathering intelligence over two weeks, authorities have discovered that the syndicate was using both sea and land routes along the Malaysia-Thailand border to smuggle illegal immigrants into the country.
All detained illegal immigrants will be investigated under the Immigration Act, and the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act.
