KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 152 foreign nationals were detained during an enforcement operation by the Immigration Department here on Thursday night (Feb 5).
Immigration deputy director-general (Operations) Datuk Lokman Effendi Ramli said that during the operations, codenamed Ops Selera and Ops Sapu, a total of 890 people were inspected, comprising 458 foreign nationals and the remainder locals.
“Inspection results showed that 152 foreign nationals, aged 21 to 42, are believed to have committed various offences under the Immigration Act and Passport Act,” he told the media.
According to him, Myanmar nationals recorded the highest number of arrests, followed by Chinese nationals, for various immigration-related offences.
“Among the offences detected were overstaying, failure to possess valid travel documents to remain in the country, and misuse of visas and permits issued,” he added.
Datuk Lokman said the department also suspected that several seized documents may be fake, and immigration officers are still verifying their authenticity.
“Verification is ongoing, and we do not rule out the possibility that some of the documents are fake,” he said.
He added that the operation, which began at about 8pm and ended at 10pm, involved inspections at 19 premises and was conducted by 112 immigration officers from the Immigration Department headquarters in Putrajaya.
Some premises were found to have surveillance systems, such as closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras, to detect the presence of authorities from a distance, he said.
He also said some foreign nationals attempted to flee upon realising that immigration officers were present during the inspection.
In the same operation, several employers were also detained for allegedly hiring undocumented foreign workers.
“All those detained will be brought to the KLIA Depot for further investigation and action,” he said.
