KUALA LUMPUR: In a move to avoid detection, a man quietly blended in with media and enforcement officers during an Immigration Department raid here.
However, he was spotted and arrested at a hotel in Chow Kit early Thursday (April 10).
In a panic, he kneeled and pleaded for his release, claiming he had valid documents to stay in the country, Bernama reported.
A similar fate befell a woman who attempted to escape when her friend failed to open the hotel room door, despite her desperate cries for help from outside.
Both the man and woman were among 32 illegal immigrants detained for lacking valid travel documents and overstaying.
Kuala Lumpur Immigration director Wan Mohammed Saupee Wan Yusoff said the raid followed two weeks of intelligence gathering, focusing on several hotspots across the capital.
"In the first raid at a hotel in Chow Kit, believed to be occupied by illegal immigrants, a total of 22 people were arrested.
"The group included two Indonesian men, nine Indonesian women, four Pakistani men, five Bangladeshi men and two Thai women," he said.
Wan Mohammed Saupee said in the second operation targeting four shophouses in Sentul, three Indonesian women, three Indian men, two Nepalese men, one Myanmar national and one Pakistani were nabbed.
He said those arrested are aged between 15 and 45, with most working in low-wage sectors such as hotel services, laundry, catering and snooker centres.
The suspects are being investigated under Section 6(1)(c) and Section 15(1)(c) of the Immigration Act 1959/63 for lacking valid travel documents and overstaying.
