113 illegal immigrants held in Selayang Baru now under EMCO

Immigration authorities arrested 113 illegal immigrants in raids conducted yesterday in the Selayang Baru area of Gombak near here that is under an Enhanced Movement Control Order (EMCO).

Director-General of Immigration Datuk Khairul Dzaimee Daud said 63 immigrants from Indonesia, 22 from Myanmar, 19 from India, six from Bangladesh, two from Pakistan and one from Nepal were held during the operation that began at 9 am.

They comprised 66 men, 36 women and 11 children, he said in a statement today.

“During the operation, 1,683 foreigners were checked. The 113 were detained and taken for the documentation process at the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur Immigration Department in Jalan Duta.

“All the immigrants, checked and detained, were found to be COVID-19 negative in tests conducted by the Health Ministry,” he said.

Khairul Dzaimee said the area had a large number of foreigners because many of them worked at the Selayang Wholesale Market.

“The arrested immigrants had committed offences such as not having valid identification documents, having overstayed, having false documents and for other offences under the Immigration Act.

“They will be investigated under the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007, Immigration Act 1959/63, Passports Act 1966 and Immigration Regulations 1963,” he said.

Khairul Dzaimee said all of them will be deported to their country of origin after serving sentence for the offences and will be blacklisted from coming to Malaysia again.

Some 210 officers and personnel from various agencies, such as the police, Civil Defence Force, People’s Volunteer Corps (Rela) and Health Ministry, took part in the operation.

-- BERNAMA