PUTRAJAYA: Over the past seven years, a syndicate has been raking in big bucks and is believed to have made at least RM100mil through illegal activities such as smuggling foreigners into the country and by selling forged immigration documents.
Their scheming ways came to an end following a series of raids conducted under a special operations codenamed Ops Serkap.
Immigration director-general Datuk Zakaria Shaaban said the raids were carried out on Monday and Tuesday, which resulted in the arrest of nine people, including the syndicate’s Nepali mastermind.
“Records showed the 47-year-old Nepali man was previously detained by Bukit Aman Counter Terrorism Division in 2016,” he told a press conference yesterday.
Zakaria said the operation was meticulously planned after six months of intelligence gathering.
“We detained two other Nepali men, three male Indian nationals, a Bangladeshi man, a local man and a Vietnamese woman with a permanent resident status.”
Several items were seized including 111 foreign passports, 10 laptops, six mobile phones and RM3,950 in cash, he added.
“Initial investigations revealed the syndicate had been operating since 2019.
“They posed as agents for foreign workers to dupe employers by claiming they can process applications by employers.
“However, instead, they processed fake documents such as e-pass slips and stickers,” he said.
Zakaria said investigations revealed that the syndicate charged between RM5,000 and RM6,000 for each foreign worker.
He reminded employers to deal straight with the department and not with such bogus agents.
On another matter, Zakaria said 228,961 foreigners had signed up for the Migrant Repatriation Programme 2.0 since it started on March 19 last year.
“So far, 204,523 foreigners have been successfully repatriated. We have collected RM114.5mil in fees for the programme.
“The programme will run until April 30,” he said, adding that based on the response so far, the department hope to extend it.
The repatriation programme is a voluntary amnesty initiative that allows undocumented migrants to return to their home countries without facing prosecution.
