BY: Aida Aziz
HUTAN MELITANG: A total of 59 foreigners were arrested in the Integrated Ops of the Malaysian Immigration Department (JIM) of Perak, Putrajaya and the Perak Maritime Enforcement Agency around the premises and pier of the fishing platform here, yesterday.
Perak’s JIM Director, Hapdzan Husaini, stated that the operation was conducted around 1 am and ended at 4 am, involving 91 officers from various agencies.
He said that even though there were attempts to escape by jumping into the sea and hiding in the bushes, the raiding team managed to surround the area.
“Based on information from the public and intelligence made, JIM Perak acted in an Integrated Ops with JIM Putrajaya and the Perak Maritime Enforcement Agency at the location of a fishing platform jetty on August 4.
“A total of 61 people were examined, consisting of citizens of Myanmar, Thailand and Indonesia. Of these, 59 people were arrested involving (1) Thai men, (13) Indonesian men, (2) Vietnamese women.
“(36) men and (5) women and (2) boys from Myanmar who were at the location had committed immigration offences.
“While (2) men from Myanmar have been handed over to the Maritime Enforcement Agency for investigation purposes. All of them are between 7 and 55 years old,” he said in a statement at midnight last night.
He explained that upon arriving at the scene, the raiding team had to cut the gate of the premises to allow the officers to enter the area of the premises.
Each room door was knocked by a senior officer who introduced himself and showed the department’s authorization card to inform the purpose of presence to the occupants of the rooms at the location of the raid.
“The presence of the operation team at the location of the raid caused them to flee to save themselves by diving into the sea and hiding in the bushes around the location of the raid.
“They failed to escape due to the efficiency of the operation team who managed to close all the spaces by surrounding the premises,” he said.
Therefore, he said, all of them were arrested for investigation because they are believed to have committed an offence under Section 6(1)(c) of the Immigration Act 1959/63 which is not having a valid travel document.
Section 15(1)(c) i.e. staying overtime and Regulation 39(b), Immigration Regulations 1963 i.e. breaching the conditions of the Visit Pass by working illegally.
He added that JIM Perak always improves monitoring and operations by complying with the standard operating procedures (SOP) set.
